Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi pulled out of this weekend's Tokyo International Women's Marathon on Friday due to a stress fracture in her left rib.
Takahashi had hoped to run in Sunday's marathon, which doubles as a qualifier for the next year's athletics World Championships in Paris, but failed to fully recover from the injury in time.
The fracture was discovered following tests she received at a Chiba hospital on Nov. 5, shortly after she had begun full-fledged road workouts after returning from her training base in Colorado.
It is the first time that the 30-year-old Takahashi has made a late withdrawal from a marathon due to injury since the 1999 World Championships in Spain.