Organizers of the 60th Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, scheduled for Feb. 6, 2011, announced on Oct. 1 that they will accept female applicants for the anniversary race. Organizers have no plans to add an invited women's field but will admit any women who meet the race's qualifying time of 2 hours 50 minutes. They hope to increase the number of applicants beyond last year's biggest-ever field size of 600.
Women have occasionally run Beppu-Oita in the past with special permission. Kiyoko Obata's 2:48:52 in the 1979 Beppu-Oita was a landmark in the history of Japanese women's marathoning, the first official time recorded by a Japanese woman in a domestic race.
Full details on application criteria for the 2011 race will be available on Oct. 6.
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