Skip to main content

Osaka Marathon Elite Field

One of the world's ten biggest marathons, in its six runnings to date the Osaka Marathon has continued to avoid the addition of a world-class elite field of the same caliber as at equivalently-sized races like Tokyo, Berlin and Boston. In place of doling out cash to pros, Osaka's women's field has developed into a sort of national championship race for amateur women.

In the field this year are six, probably all six, of the amateur Japan women to have broken 2:40 in the last three years. Last year's top three, Yoshiko Sakamoto (F.O.R.), Yumiko Kinoshita (SWAC) and Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) lead the way at the 2:36 +/- level, with a second trio of Marie Imada (Iwatani Sangyo), Mitsuko Ino (R2 Nishin Nihon) and Chika Tawara (RxL) all around the 2:39 level.

Last year's winner Sakamoto and 3rd placer Yoshimatsu squared off in September at Germany's Volksbank Muenster Marathon, Yoshimatsu tying Sakamoto's Osaka winning time of 2:36:02 to take 3rd over two minutes ahead of Sakamoto. Kinoshita, who spent most of the first half of the year recovering from injury, won the first running of the Matsumoto Marathon in early October as a tuneup for Osaka. The only one of the top six still in her 20s, Imada looks like the biggest threat to the front group as she continues to develop as a marathoner.

The men's race features three Eritreans, Kaleab Ghilagabr the heavy favorite to win with a 2:12:22 best in Riga two years ago. Yuma Morii (SGH Group) is the only Japanese man in the field to have broken 2:20 in the last three years, but with a 2:18:55 best there's not much chance he'll be in competition with Ghilagabr. #3-ranked Satoru Kasuya (Toyota Boshoku) ran 2:11:17 in 2011 but was later diagnosed with a brain tumor which proved nearly fatal. Still on the comeback, his recent best is only 2:20:38 in Tokyo last year. 2016 100 km world champion Hideaki Yamauchi (Japan/Hamamatsu Hotonics) and interesting independent Hideyuki Ikegami (Japan/Kyoto T&F Assoc.) are also in the field.

7th Osaka Marathon Elite Field
Osaka, 11/26/17
click here for field announcement
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Women
Hisae Yoshimatsu (Japan/Shunan City Hall) - 2:35:46 (Hofu 2015)
Yumiko Kinoshita (Japan/SWAC) - 2:35:49 (Tokyo 2015)
Yoshiko Sakamoto (Japan/F.O.R.) - 2:36:02 (Osaka 2016)
Marie Imada (Japan/Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:38:51 (Kitakyushu 2017)
Mistuko Ino (Japan/R2 Nishi Nihon) - 2:39:07 (Tokushima 2017)
Chika Tawara (Japan/RxL) - 2:39:44 (Osaka 2015)
Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan/AC Kita) - 2:40:31 (Beppu-Oita 2017)
Azusa Nojiri (Japan/Raffine) - 2:42:16 (Osaka Int'l 2015)
Felista Wanjugu (Kenya) - 2:44:00 (Zhengzhou 2016)

Men
Kaleab Ghilagabr (Eritrea) - 2:12:22 (Riga 2015)
Yuma Morii (Japan/SGH Group) - 2:18:55 (Nobeoka 2017)
Satoru Kasuya (Japan/Toyota Boshoku) - 2:20:38 (Tokyo 2016)
Tesfamariam Gashazghi (Eritrea) - 2:20:57 (Asmara 2017)
Hideaki Yamauchi (Japan/Hamamatsu Hotonics) - 2:22:48 (Shizuoka 2016)
Kota Shinjo (Japan/NTT Nishi Nihon) - 2:22:56 (Hokkaido 2016)
Fikadu Kibreab (Eritrea) - 2:23:25 (Asmara 2017)
Tadashi Horikoshi (Japan/NTT Nishi Nihon) - 2:27:42 (London IPC 2015)
Hideyuki Ikegami (Japan/Kyoto T&F Assoc.) - 2:30:15 (Hannover 2017)

text and photo © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

Metts said…
Its good to see a large marathon that doesn't focus on the EA elites. It seems these days so many marathons are dominated by that group. Hope Osaka can keep its focus on what is does best now. The reason I love Japan and marathons is the large number of non elites that this race attracts.

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive