Moment of glory for Wanjiru and Jelimo

• Beijing Olympics stars are picked as Kenya’s best for 2008 at awards gala night

Isinbayeva was also declared female European Athlete of the Year by the European Athletics Association in October.

In the UEPS poll, Isinbayeva won with 74 points, a decisive winner ahead of German swimmer Britta Steffen (17) and Belgium’s Olympic High Jump champion Tia Hellebaut (16). The 26-year-old Russian also won the UEPS award in 2005.

The UEPS men’s vote went to Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal.

The Osaka Ladies Marathon is often the venue where future marathon super-stars ventured into the magical distance of 42.195km.

In 1997, Naoko Takahashi a future Olympic marathon champion made her marathon debut in Osaka. She only finished seventh but has learned a lot from her experience in Osaka, for she set a national record in her next marathon in March of 1998.

Takahashi went on to win the 2000 Olympics and recorded the first sub-2:20 marathon in the 2001 Berlin Marathon.

In 2001, Yoko Shibui set a world marathon debut record of 2:23:11. Last year, national 3000m and 5000m record holder Kayoko Fukushi made her marathon debut; the distance humbled her for she was a dismal 19th in 2:40:54.

The most anticipated debutante this year is Yukiko Akaba, a 1:08:11 half marathon runner who ran the 10,000m at the Beijing Olympics.

Akaba, who has a 10,000m best of 31:15.34 and was tenth at the 2008 World Half Marathon Championships, is a rare breed in Japan, for she is not only a world class runner, but also a mother of two years old.

For 34 days, Akaba trained in Tokunoshima, where she ran over “Naoko road,” the course Naoko Takahashi used to train.

Her main goal is to win, not a fast time.

Two other marathon debutantes should not be forgotten. Akane Wakita, a protégée of famed coach Yoshio Koide, who was 11th at the 2005 World Cross Country Championships Junior race, ran the 10,000m in the 2007 World Championships and has the half marathon best of 1:09:57.

Since Koide always thinks about a long range goal for his athletes, he may be thinking this race as a learning experience for Wakita.

Additional reporting by IAAF