Mizuki Noguchi
Mizuki Noguchi (Japanese: 野口みずき, born July 3, 1978) is a female long-distance athlete (track and field) from Japan.
Noguchi is a native of Ise city in Mie prefecture. She started competing in track and field during her first year of middle school. Whle attending Uji Yamada Commercial High School, she entered the national high school track meet and competed in the 3000m and the long-distance relay.
In 1997 she was hired by Wacoal, a maker of women's clothing, as part of their "Spark Angels" program of sponsored women athletes. However, in October of the following year the director, Nobuyuki Fujita (藤田信之), left over differences with the company. He took with him a coach and a few athletes, including Noguchi. Whle she was receiving unemployment benefits for a short time, she remained active athletically. In February 1999, Fujita and all his followers were hired by Globaly, a commodity futures firm. Noguchi currently retains Globaly's sponsorship.
After winning the Inuyama half marathon in 1999, she was inspired to concentrate her efforts on that event. She was ranked second in the world that year, and in 2001 she won in the all-Japan corporate league. With a string of victories, she became known as "Queen of the Half Marathon". Continuing through the Miyazaki Women's Road Race competition in January 2004, she competed in 24 half marathons, and won 14 of them. Only twice was she beaten by another Japanese.
In March 2002 she entered her first full marathon, the Nagoya International Women's Marathon, and won. In January 2003 she won the Osaka International Women's Marathon with a time of 2 hours 21 minutes 18 seconds, the second-fastest on record for Japan.
Prize History
In the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, she won the gold medal in the Women's Marathon event at 2:26:20.
She also won a silver medal in the World Championships 2003 in Paris.
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