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Introduced into the Olympics in 1984 The World Championships in 1983, The European Championships 1982, and The Commonwealth Games in 1986.
The record times for the championships are listed below along with the World record progression.
There were no official IAAF records of the Marathon, as the IAAF did not recognise running records not made on a track until 01.01.2003 when they accepted them as a WBT and then on the 01.01.2004 as official world records.
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| Naoko Takahashi | 2.23.14 |  | 24-9-2000 | Sydney |
| Catherine Ndereba | 2.23.55 |  | 31-8-2003 | Paris |
| Maria Guida | 2.26.05 |  | 10-8-2002 | Munich |
| Lisa Martin | 2.25.28 |  | 31-1-1990 | Auckland |