OSAKA, Japan (AP) — Ukraine’s Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko won the Osaka Women’s Marathon for the second straight year on Sunday, pulling away from Japan’s Yukiko Akaba with five kilometers remaining.
Gamera-Shmyrko clocked a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes, 37 seconds to finish ahead of Akaba, who had a time of 2:26:00 in her last race before retiring. Karolina Jarzynska of Poland was third in 2:26:31.
Japan’s Sairi Maeda produced a fourth-place finish on her marathon debut with a time of 2:26:46.
Athens Olympic marathon champion Mizuki Noguchi last week pulled out of the race for the third year in a row due to a stress fracture in her left thighbone.