Tokyo Olympians finish 1, 2 in Osaka Women's Marathon

Japan Olympic team member Mao Ichiyama won the Osaka Women's Marathon in a race record 2 hours, 21 minutes, 11 seconds on Sunday, finishing ahead of fellow Tokyo Olympian Honami Maeda.

Organizers moved this year's race off public streets due to the coronavirus pandemic, rerouting it to 14-plus laps of a 2.8-kilometer circuit around Osaka's Nagai Park, finishing inside Yanmar Stadium Nagai.

Ichiyama's time was about two minutes shy of the Japan women's record of 2:19:12 run by 2004 Olympic champion Mizuki Noguchi at the September 2005 Berlin Marathon.

Both Ichiyama and Maeda entered the race aiming to break Noguchi's record, but Maeda fell off the pace early on, while Ichiyama's pace slackened around the halfway point.

Ichiyama did break Noguchi's meet record of 2:21:18 from 2003, while Maeda still managed a personal best of 2:23:30.

posted Sunday January 31st