Posted: November 21, 2004

Athletics: In Shocking Upset, Genovese Wins Tokyo Marathon

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Correction:

Bruna Genovese is no longer represented by Gianni Demadonna. For the race in Tokyo yesterday, she worked with Posso International Promotions (Tampa, Fla.) to gain a place in the race.

It's been along, strange trip for Italian marathoner, Bruna Genovese, which came full circle today at the Tokyo International Ladies Marathon. It was at this race in 2001 that the then 25 year-old chopped five minutes off of her personal best time to place third in 2:25:35, and seemed to enter the ranks of the world's top marathoners.

Three years later, after a string of mostly disappointing results, Genovese came from behind today to win in Tokyo, beating the likes of Asian record holder Sun Yingjie, defending champion Elfenesh Alemu and the multiple Olympic and world championships medalist, Gete Wami. Genovese crossed the finish line in 2:26:34, nine seconds ahead of Kiyoko Shimahara of Japan. She is the first Italian to win this race in its 26-year history.

"During the first ten kilometers I never tried to stay with the first group and I ran with the second and third groups," Genovese told Agence France-Presse. But around the 31st kilometer, she left the second group and began to stalk the leaders. She caught Sun in the 33rd kilometer, Wami in the 35th, and remarkably made up nearly a minute deficit on the leading pair of Alemu and Masako Chiba to get the win.

Riding high in early 2002, Genovese finished sixth at Boston in 2:29:02 and was never a contender for victory. It was the only marathon she contested that year. In the spring of 2003 she went to London, and finished 14th in 2:32:58. In the fall of 2003, she went back to Tokyo and finished fourth in 2:34:32. The Forestale athlete just couldn't get her marathon program into top gear.

Her 2:29:03 (second place) at Roma last March qualified her for the Italian Olympic Team. She would finish a strong 10th in the brutally hot Olympic Marathon in Athens in 2:32:50, a race so difficult that world record holder Paula Radcliffe an then-reigning London and New York City Marathon champion, Margaret Okayo, couldn't even finish. Apparently, her recovery from Athens was very good, allowing her to taste victory today.

The Tokyo race keeps all of its financial payments to athletes secret, so there is no way to know what the 28 year-old earned from today's effort. But there is no question that her victory here brought a smile to her manager's face, Gianni Demadonna, who now has a strong athlete to pitch to either London or Boston in the spring.

"Genovese is crazy," Demadonna once told RRW because of the athlete's stubborness.

Coached by long-time Italian marathoner, Salvatore Bettiol, Genovese was born in Montebelluna (Treviso). She stands 161 cm (5'-3") and weighs 50 kg (110 lbs). She made her marathon debut in Venice in 1999 at the age of 23, finishing third in 2:31:06. In addition to her tenth place finish in Athens, she has finished 17th at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics over the marathon distance in 2001 (2:33:13), and was 20th at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships in 2003 (1:12:38). The race in Tokyo today is her only marathon victory.