Sydney Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi, who made an impressive comeback in a Tokyo race last November, has asked to be left out of the selection process for this year's Asian Games, Japanese athletics officials said Sunday.
Takahashi has notified the Japan Association of Athletics Federation of her intention to skip the race in Doha, Qatar, in December, where a ticket for next year's world championships will be at stake for Japanese marathon runners.
"I'll pick my next race after going through conditioning drills and training in March and April without running in the Asian Games," Takahashi said on the eve of the announcement of Japanese representatives for marathon races in the Asian Games.