TOKYO, Jan 25: Former Olympic marathon champion Mizuki Noguchi, who is trying to qualify for the London Games after missing Beijing due to injury, has been forced to miss her first full race in more than four years.

Noguchi, who won gold in Athens, has a slight inflammation in her left hamstring and has withdrawn from Sunday’s Osaka marathon, one of Japan’s three Olympic trials, her coach Hisakazu Hirose told reporters Wednesday.

But Noguchi vowed to run in the last trial, the Nagoya marathon on March 11, giving her a shot at gold this summer.

“I was shocked. But I may need just a little rest to recover, so I will refocus myself and work hard for the last trial in Nagoya. I will never give up,” she said in a statement.

Noguchi, who recently underwent three weeks of high-altitude training in the US, is vying for one of three London Olympic spots allocated to Japanese marathon women.—AFP