Yumiko Hara

She set a half marathon best at the 2002 Miyazaki Women's Road Race, where her time of 1:09:28 brought her third place behind Mizuki Noguchi and Mikie Takanaka.

[1] Running at the Sapporo Half Marathon in 2003 she finished with a time not far from her personal best (1:09:37) to take second place behind Catherine Ndereba, who set a course record.

[2] Over this period she competed at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships and although she failed to finish at the 2002 edition, she managed 19th place the following year.

Hara made her debut over the classic distance at the 2005 Nagoya Marathon, which she won in a time of 2:24:19,[3] and she went on to finish sixth at the 2005 World Championships.

She approached Japanese coach Yoshio Koide (who trained 2000 Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi among others) and Hara joined his stable in 2010.