Yoko Shibui

{{short description|Japanese long-distance runner}}

File:Yoko Shibui during 2013 London Marathon (2).JPG

{{Nihongo|Yoko Shibui|渋井 陽子|Shibui Yōko|extra=born March 14, 1979 in Kuroiso, now Nasushiobara, Tochigi}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20200417212206/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sh/yoko-shibui-1.html] Sports-Reference.com is a long-distance runner from Japan, who is competing in the 5000 and 10,000 metres as well as the marathon race. She holds the Japanese record over 10,000 m with her best time of 30:48.89 minutes. Shibui is one of only a handful of women to have completed the marathon under two hours and twenty minutes – her personal best of 2:19.41 ranks her within the top ten fastest ever.[http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=o/age=n/season=0/sex=W/all=y/legal=A/disc=MAR/detail.html Marathon All-Time]. IAAF (2011-01-24). Retrieved on 2011-02-27.

She made a winning debut in the marathon in 2001, when she triumphed at the Osaka Ladies Marathon in 2:23:11 hours. She finished fourth at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton. At the next global championships, the 2003 World Championships in Paris, she finished fourteenth in the 10,000 metres. One year later Shibui won the Berlin Marathon, clocking a personal best of 2:19:41.{{Cite web|url=http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_news_frameset.html?http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news_2009/rw_news_20090727_SFM.html|title = Runner's Web and Triathlete's Web, a Running, Track and Field and Triathlon Resource Portal}}

In 2008, she finished seventeenth in the 10,000 metres at the Olympic Games. Shibui won both the Osaka Ladies Marathon and the San Francisco Marathon in 2009.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/26/BA0218VCGF.DTL|title = S.F. Marathon: 26.2 miles of feel-good pain|date = 27 July 2009}} At the 2011 Tokyo Marathon she was in a leading position with only two kilometres to go but slowed to relinquish her lead, ending up in fourth place.Nakamura, Ken (2011-02-27). [http://www.iaaf.org/LRR11/news/newsid=59407.html Mekonnen triumphs in Tokyo in 2:07:35]. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-02-27. She tried to gain a place on the 2012 Olympic marathon team, but her fourth-place finish at the 2012 Nagoya Women's Marathon was not enough for selection.Nakamura, Ken (2012-03-11). [http://www.iaaf.org/Mini/LRR12/News/NewsDetail.aspx?id=64196 Mayorova steals the show in Nagoya, third time a charm for Ozaki - Report]. IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-03-20.