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Osaka International Women's Marathon Elite Fields announced

The elite field for the Jan. 26 Osaka International Women's Marathon is out, and it's a really short list, especially given Osaka International's World Athletics platinum label status. There's last year's winner Workenesh Edesa, 3rd-placer Mizuki Matsuda, 7th-placer Natsumi Matsushita, 9th-placer Madoka Nakano and 12th-placer Kana Kobayashi, top Japanese Paris Olympic marathon placer Yuka Suzuki, veteran Kenyan-born Israeli Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, the debuting Nanaka Izawa, and that's about it.

Workenesh outran Honami Maeda last year, both going under 2:19 and Workenesh getting the win in 2:18:51. She has to be viewed as the favorite. Salpeter has run as fast as 2:17:45 before, but she hasn't run under 2:25 in the marathon or under 1:10 in the half marathon since 2022, so there's not much reason to think she's going to be competitive in a faster race here. Matsuda and Suzuki both ran PBs in their last marathons, Matsuda a 2:20:42 in Berlin this fall and Suzuki a 2:24:02 while finishing 6th in the Paris Olympics. Kobayashi and Izawa are interesting, Kobayashi having run 2:29:44 last year as a non-track team student at Waseda University and then winning Hofu at the beginning of December in a 2:24:59 CR, and Izawa fresh off a great 1:08:25 PB at the Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon this month.

The Osaka Half Marathon is also happening in parallel with the marathon, and the fields there are decently competitive as always. Yuka Ando won the women's race in Osaka last year in a 1:08:18 PB and is back this time, facing sub-70 runner Sakiho Tsutsui, Mongolian NR holder Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh and more. 1:00:41 Ethiopian Gebrie Erikhun leads a domestic men's field that includes Japan-based Patrick Mathenge Wambui and a million 61-minute Japanese men.

44th Osaka International Women's Marathon

Elite Field Highlights

Lonah Chemtai Salpeter (Israel) - 2:18:45 (Nagoya 2022)

Workenesh Edesa (Ethiopia) - 2:18:51 (Osaka Women's 2024)

Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) - 2:20:42 (Berlin 2024)

Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 2:23:05 (Osaka Women's 2022)

Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) - 2:24:02 (Paris Olympics 2024)

Kana Kobayashi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:24:59 (Hofu 2024)

Yumi Yoshikawa (Chiba T&F Assoc.) - 2:25:20 (Osaka Women's 2023)

Chiharu Suzuki (Hitachi) - 2:25:59 (Osaka Women's 2023)

Madoka Nakano (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:26:50 (Osaka Women's 2024)

Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) - 2:29:20 (Nagoya 2023)

Ayano Ikeuchi (Denso) - 2:32:26 (Seoul 2024)

Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) - 2:33:29 (Nagoya 2023)

Debut

Nanaka Izawa (Starts) - 1:08:25 (Sanyo Half 2024)

Rio Einaga (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 1:11:03 (National University Half 2023)

Kurumi Yoda (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 1:12:46 (Kansai University Half 2024)

Nanako Miwa (Kansai Gaikokugo Univ.) - 1:14:37 (Kansai University Half 2023)

Japan´s Mizuki Matsuda is aiming to become the first four-time winner at the Osaka Women’s Marathon

Course record-holder Mizuki Matsuda is aiming to become the first four-time winner at the Osaka Women’s Marathon, but the Japanese runner will face stiff opposition at the World Athletics Platinum Label road race on Sunday (28).

Matsuda is one of three women to have won in Osaka three times, her latest victory coming just two years ago in a PB and course record of 2:20:52. Her last race was five months ago at the World Championships in Budapest, where she finished 13th.

She didn’t compete at the Marathon Grand Championships in October, Japan’s main selection race for the Olympic Games. But the top-placed Japanese runner in Osaka could potentially bump off the provisional third team member, Ai Hosoda, if they run faster than 2:21:42 – Hosoda’s best clocking within the qualifying window. The Nagoya Marathon in March will be the final opportunity for Japanese runners to claim an Olympic berth.

Matsuda’s motivation will be high, but she’ll face three formidable opponents from overseas.

Workenesh Edesa is the fastest in the field, boasting a PB of 2:18:51 from the 2022 Berlin Marathon. She has finished on the podium in 10 of her 15 career marathons, and she has bettered 2:21 in her past four races over the classic distance. Last year she won in Prague, then went on to clock 2:19:40 in Berlin.

Uganda’s Stella Chesang could be something of an underdog. The 2018 Commonwealth 10,000m champion has only contested one marathon to date, but she clocked a national record of 2:20:23 to finish third in Hamburg.

Edesa’s fellow Ethiopian Meseret Gola will also be highly motivated on Sunday, having finished second last year. In fact, she has finished runner-up in six of her 10 most recent marathons – including at the 2022 Seville Marathon, where she set her PB of 2:20:50 – so will be keen to claim the top spot of the podium.

Matsuda won’t be the only Japanese runner vying for a last-minute call-up to the Olympic team. Sayaka Sato represented Japan at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, following a 2:22:13 PB run in Berlin in 2022. Honami Maeda won the Marathon Grand Championships ahead of the Tokyo Olympics but finished seventh at the latest edition in October. Natsumi Matsushita, meanwhile, finished fifth in that race and will be hopeful of showing improved form on Sunday.

Leading elite entries

Workenesh Edesa (ETH) 2:18:51

Stella Chesang (UGA) 2:20:23

Sisay Meseret Gola (ETH) 2:20:50

Mizuki Matsuda (JPN) 2:20:52

Sayaka Sato (JPN) 2:22:13

Honami Maeda (JPN) 2:22:32

Natsumi Matsushita (JPN) 2:23:05

Rie Kawauchi (JPN) 2:25:35

Ayano Ikemitsu (JPN) 2:26:07

Yuna Daito (JPN) 2:26:09

Daeun Jeong (KOR) 2:28:32

Kaena Takeyama (JPN) 2:29:20

Militsa Mircheva (BUL) 2:29:23

Matsuda runs 2:20:52 to break Osaka Women's Marathon record

Mizuki Matsuda broke the race record at the Osaka Women’s Marathon on Sunday (30), improving her PB to 2:20:52 to win the World Athletics Elite Label event.

Her time beats the 2:21:11 event record which had been set by Mao Ichiyama last year and moves her to fifth on the Japanese all-time list. It is also the second-fastest time by a Japanese athlete in Japan, behind Ichiyama’s 2:20:29 set in Nagoya in 2020.

Matsuda was followed over the finish line by Mao Uesugi, Natsumi Matsushita and Mizuki Tanimoto, as the top four all dipped under 2:24.

Before the race, Matsuda had explained how her goal was to win the race with a performance that would help her to secure a spot on the team for the World Athletics Championships in Oregon later this year. After winning in Osaka in 2020 with 2:21:47, Matsuda had later missed out on a place at the Tokyo Olympics when Ichiyama ran faster in Nagoya.

“I could not attain my goal today,” she said after the race, with beating Ichiyama’s 2:20:29 a likely aim. “I am happy that my hard training paid off well.

“I think the result was good because I ran aggressively from the start. I just hope that I will be selected for the World Championships team. During the race, I was imagining myself running in Eugene, thinking: ‘How would the world-class runner run at this stage of the race?’”

Despite the pandemic, the event in Osaka was able to go ahead as planned, under good conditions with little of the expected wind.

Matsuda and Uesugi had run together behind the three male pacemakers until just after 25km, passing 10km in 33:02 and half way in 1:09:57 – a half marathon PB for Uesugi.

At 25km the clock read 1:22:47, but Uesugi started to drift back a short while later and by 30km – passed in 1:39:15 – Matsuda had built a 31-second lead.

She went through 35km in 1:56:04 and 40km in 2:13:23, with the pacemakers leaving the race as they entered Nagai Stadium park at around 41km.

Matsuda went on to cross the finish line in 2:20:52 to achieve her third Osaka Women’s Marathon win after her victories in 2018 and 2020, maintaining her unbeaten record in the event.

Although Uesugi’s pace began to slow as she was dropped, she held on to run a big PB of 2:22:29, while Matsushita was third in 2:23:05 and Tanimoto fourth in 2:23:11. Yukari Abe was fifth in 2:24:02 as the top five all set PBs, with Sayaka Sato sixth in 2:24:47. The top six all qualified for the Marathon Grand Championship, the 2024 Olympic trial race.

Matsuda runs 2:20:52 to break Osaka Women's Marathon record

Mizuki Matsuda broke the race record at the Osaka Women’s Marathon on Sunday (30), improving her PB to 2:20:52 to win the World Athletics Elite Label event.

Her time beats the 2:21:11 event record which had been set by Mao Ichiyama last year and moves her to fifth on the Japanese all-time list. It is also the second-fastest time by a Japanese athlete in Japan, behind Ichiyama’s 2:20:29 set in Nagoya in 2020.

Matsuda was followed over the finish line by Mao Uesugi, Natsumi Matsushita and Mizuki Tanimoto, as the top four all dipped under 2:24.

Before the race, Matsuda had explained how her goal was to win the race with a performance that would help her to secure a spot on the team for the World Athletics Championships in Oregon later this year. After winning in Osaka in 2020 with 2:21:47, Matsuda had later missed out on a place at the Tokyo Olympics when Ichiyama ran faster in Nagoya.

“I could not attain my goal today,” she said after the race, with beating Ichiyama’s 2:20:29 a likely aim. “I am happy that my hard training paid off well.

“I think the result was good because I ran aggressively from the start. I just hope that I will be selected for the World Championships team. During the race, I was imagining myself running in Eugene, thinking: ‘How would the world-class runner run at this stage of the race?’”

Despite the pandemic, the event in Osaka was able to go ahead as planned, under good conditions with little of the expected wind.

Matsuda and Uesugi had run together behind the three male pacemakers until just after 25km, passing 10km in 33:02 and half way in 1:09:57 – a half marathon PB for Uesugi.

At 25km the clock read 1:22:47, but Uesugi started to drift back a short while later and by 30km – passed in 1:39:15 – Matsuda had built a 31-second lead.

She went through 35km in 1:56:04 and 40km in 2:13:23, with the pacemakers leaving the race as they entered Nagai Stadium park at around 41km.

Matsuda went on to cross the finish line in 2:20:52 to achieve her third Osaka Women’s Marathon win after her victories in 2018 and 2020, maintaining her unbeaten record in the event.

Although Uesugi’s pace began to slow as she was dropped, she held on to run a big PB of 2:22:29, while Matsushita was third in 2:23:05 and Tanimoto fourth in 2:23:11. Yukari Abe was fifth in 2:24:02 as the top five all set PBs, with Sayaka Sato sixth in 2:24:47. The top six all qualified for the Marathon Grand Championship, the 2024 Olympic trial race.

2022 Strong Elite Field for Osaka International Women's Marathon

The organizers of next month's Osaka International Women's Marathon have announced the invited field of 43 for Japan's last remaining purely elite marathon. Like the 2021 race, despite the event's name it's a Japanese-only field with male pacers, kind of inevitably on the first point given Japan's ongoing border fortification but a bit regrettably on the second.

For a domestic field it's pretty good, all 17 of the women in it who've run under 2:35 in the last three years having done it either here or in Nagoya. 2020 winner and unlucky Olympic alternate Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) is the favorite, with support from Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku), the 4th-fastest Japanese woman in 2020 and 2021, 2019's fastest Reia Iwade (Adidas), and 2021's 3rd and 4th-placers Yukari Abe (Shimamura) and Mao Uesugi (Starts). 

Six other women in the field have run under the 2:27:00 B-standard for qualification for the 2024 Olympic marathon trials, including current JMC Series I leader Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita), so with the qualifying window now open the race to finish in the 4th-6th place B-standard bracket should be just as good as the one to make the 1st-3rd place A-standard bracket.

Alongside the marathon, the Osaka Half Marathon will also feature two-time Osaka International winner Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) in her final race.

Check back closer to race date for options on streaming and following the race live.

41st Osaka International Women's Marathon.

- Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) - 2:21:47 (1st, Osaka Int'l 2020)

- Sayaka Sato (Seiksui Kagaku) - 2:23:27 (5th, Nagoya Women's 2020)

- Reia Iwade (Adidas) - 2:23:52 (5th, Nagoya Women's 2019)

- Yukari Abe (Shimamura) - 2:24:41 (3rd, Osaka Int'l 2021)

- Mao Uesugi (Starts) - 2:24:52 (4th, Osaka Int'l 2021)

- Mizuki Tanimoto (Tenmaya) - 2:25:28 (11th, Nagoya Women's 2019)

- Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) - 2:26:07 (12th, Nagoya  Women's 2019)

- Ayumi Hagiwara (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 2:26:15 (5th, Oaka Int'l 2021)

- Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 2:26:26 (3rd, Nagoya Women's 2021)

- Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) - 2:26:35 (7th, Osaka Int'l 2020)

- Hanae Tanaka (Daiichi Seimei) - 2:26:49 (5th, Nagoya Women's 2021)

- Misaki Kato (Kyudenko) - 2:27:20 (8th, Nagoya Women's 2021)

- Madoka Nakano (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:27:39 (4th, Osaka Int'l 2019)

- Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto) - 2:28:51 (16th, Osaka Int'l 2020)

- Anna Matsuda (Denso) - 2:29:52 (8th, Osaka Int'l 2021)

- Rie Kawauchi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:31:34 (17th, Nagoya Women's 2021)

- Ayano Ikeuchi (Denso) - 2:33:29 (19th, Nagoya Women's 2021)

- Mai Fujisawa (Hokkaido Excel AC) - 2:35:52 (1st, Kanazawa 2021)

- Asuka Yamamoto (Edion) - 2:36:14 (21th, Osaka Int'l 2020)

- Tomomi Sawahata (Sawahatas) - 2:37:02 (1st, Gunma 2021)

- Mai Ito (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:38:07 (25th, Nagoya Women's 2021)

- Michi Numata (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 2:38:30 (39th, Nagoya Women's 2019)

- Saki Tokoro (Kyocera) - 2:38:49 (40th, Nagoya Women's 2019)

- Mitsuko Ino (Linkstyle) - 2:39:04 (10th, Osaka 2019).

Matsuda Wins Windy Nagoya in 2:21:51

Going ahead where every other race its level has canceled or postponed, the Nagoya Women's Marathon went off as planned with an elite race, mass-participation field of 5,000, and 9,000 more in the accompanying half marathon. Strong winds reported as high as 14 m/s along the course held back the kind of times organizers had hoped for, but that didn't stop 2020 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) from taking a serious swing at the women-only national record of 2:20:29 set in Nagoya last year by Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal).

Matsuda, 25 km national record co-holder Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku), 2:24:52 runner Mao Uesugi (Starts) and debuting Ikumi Fukura (Otsuka Seiyaku) were the only ones to go out with a quartet of pacers on sub-2:20 pace. By 13 km that was down to only one pacer, half marathon great Rosemary Wanjiru (Starts), and just after hitting halfway in 1:10:23 only Wanjiru and Matsuda were left.

Matsuda stuck with Wanjiru until the pacer stepped off at 30 km, but while she tried to match Ichiyama's closing speed her time drifted slower and slower as she battled the winds. Bearing down in the home straight to the indoor finish she crossed the line in 2:21:51, just 4 seconds off her best from Osaka last year, gutted, weeping and apologizing on-camera for not having run faster. Her coach Miwako Yamanaka, 4th placer at the 2002 World Cross Country Championships, said post-race, "I know she was really focused on time, but this morning when I saw the conditions I told her that today was about the win, not time. I give her a 100%." Matsuda countered, "She's being too generous."

Completely alone for the last 20 km of the race, Sato held on for 2nd in 2:24:32, just over a minute off her debut last year but a quality time given the wind. The debuting Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) came up from the 2nd pack to narrowly take 3rd in 2:26:26 with the next three finishers all within 30 seconds of her. Despite the conditions three other first-timers besides Matsushita made it under 2:30, and six women inside the top 25 ran PBs. Tokyo Olympic team alternate Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) was only 18th in 2:32:03, with Rio Olympian Mai Ito (Otsuka Seiyaku) 25th in 2:38:07 and London World Championships team member Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) 26th in 2:38:47.

Further back, women's 60+ world record holder Mariko Yugeta (Saitama OIG) likewise struggled with the wind, coming up short of her goal of breaking her own record of 2:52:13 from Osaka in January but adding another sub-3 to her resume with a time of 2:54:31 for 70th overall in her 110th marathon finish.

And behind her, thousands more women did what millions of others worldwide can still only dream of doing, crossing the finish line of a major marathon run through the downtown streets of a big city. Barring any resulting spike in infection numbers later this month, Nagoya was a beacon of hope that this fall will see all those who could only watch from a distance this time get their chances on the streets of Boston, London, Tokyo, and the world's other major cities.