Tetyana bides her time to seal famous win in Osaka | 27.01.2013
Gamera-Shmyrko, 30, confirmed her position as one of the new breed of outstanding long-distance runners with victory in Japan in 2:23:58, beating home runners Kayoko Fukushi, who was second in 2:24:21 and Yuko Watanabe, third in 2:25:56.
It was a splendid run from Gamera-Shmyrko, who looked impressive at the Olympic Games in London when she was fifth in 2:24:32 as Ethiopian Tiki Gelana won in 2:23:07.
Gamera-Shmyrko's time then broke the Ukrainian record, a mark which was improved upon only a few weeks later with Olena Shurhno's 2:23:32 at the Berlin Marathon.
But Gamera-Shmyrko, who only turned 30 three weeks ago, showed an outstanding turn of speed when it mattered most to triumph in a race when Fukushi looked to have sealed victory after making her break at the 25km mark.
At one stage, Gamera-Shmyrko was almost 150 metres behind but she never gave in, battling away all the time and finally overtaking Fukushi with 900m left.
Gamera-Shmyrko told AFP: "I thought I would never be able to catch up with her because she was very fast in the beginning.
"I usually move up my pace after 30 kilometres. I found that I was able to run faster in the last two kilometres and then I took the lead."
Gamera-Shmyrko was always in the lead group from the start but Fukushi gained supremacy when the pacemakers dropped away.
Twelve months ago Gamera-Shmyrko was second in 2:24:46 as Japan's Risa Shigetomo won in 2:23:23 but her win today is the first by a European at the event since Britain's Mara Yamauchi, the Japanese-based runner who has just retired from competitive racing, triumphed in 2008 in 2:25:10.
