Skip to main content

The Biggest Year Ever for the World's Biggest Women-Only Marathon - Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field



Hot on the heels of the announcement of the field for the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the organizers of the Nagoya Women's Marathon have put out the entry list for this year's race, the last domestic chance for Japanese women to qualify for the MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials. With the impending imperial succession the Tokyo Marathon moves this year from the last weekend of February to Lake Biwa's traditional date of the first weekend of March, forcing Lake Biwa to move a week later. That puts it the same day as Nagoya, with Nagoya starting three hours earlier.

Logistical challenges aside, Nagoya is set to be a big race. While 24 men have qualified for September's MGC Race to date, only nine women have done it. A few will be trying to make it in Tokyo, but dozens are lining up in Nagoya to try to pick up one of the six spots available for sure. The top three Japanese women will qualify if under 2:28:00, with up to three more qualifying if under 2:27:00. There's also a chance to qualify by clearing 2:24:00 or by averaging under 2:28:00 between Nagoya and another race in the last year and a half.

As in Lake Biwa, the front end of the field is well-positioned to pull the Japanese women along, the Kenyan trio of Valary Jemeli, Visiline Jepkesho and Monica Jepkoech spanning the 2:20 to 2:24 level versus the top Japanese four Reia Iwade (Under Armor), Shiho Takechi (Yamada Denki), Misato Horie (Noritz) and Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) in the 2:24 to 2:25 range. The Ethiopian contingent is unusually small but formidable, with the great Meseret Defar taking another shot at the marathon distance. And, the big news of the race, half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal), trying again after falling hard early in last month's Osaka International Women's Marathon and dropping out in her first marathon since the Rio Olympics.

Speaking of Osaka, there's the same dynamic as in Lake Biwa. At least four women who ran the Osaka International Women's Marathon at the end of January, Horie, Hisami Ishii (Yamada Denki), Yukari Abe (Shimamura) and Hiroko Miyauchi (Hokuren) are trying again in order to squeeze in a two-race average under 2:28. There's no shortage of talented first-timers either, with most of the top three from last weekend's Kumanichi 30 km and Ome 30 km set to run along with several talented half marathoners. Along with being the biggest women-only marathon in the world, for the last few years Nagoya has also been one of the most competitive elite women's race. With 34 women with recent sub-2:35 times and almost a dozen high-potential additions on the debut list this could be its biggest year ever.

Check back closer to race date for more info on the TV broadcast and how to follow the action live.

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Nagoya, 3/10/19
complete field listing
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Valary Jemeli (Kenya) - 2:20:53 (3rd, Berlin 2017)
Visiline Jepkesho (Kenya) - 2:21:37 (4th, Paris 2017)
Monica Jepkoech (Kenya) - 2:24:31 (3rd, Seoul 2018)
Reia Iwade (Japan/Under Armor) - 2:24:38 (5th, Nagoya 2016)
Shiho Takechi (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 2:25:29 (7th, Nagoya 2016)
Misato Horie (Japan/Noritz) - 2:25:44 (2nd, Osaka Int'l 2017)
Miyuki Uehara (Japan/Daiichi Seimei) - 2:25:46 (9th, Berlin 2018)
Ayaka Fujimoto (Japan/Kyocera) - 2:27:08 (4th, Tokyo 2017)
Michi Numata (Japan/Toyota Jidoshokki) - 2:27:27 (9th, Nagoya 2016)
Hisami Ishii (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 2:27:35 (5th, Nagoya 2017)
Sara Dossena (Italy) - 2:27:53 (6th, Euro Champs 2018)
Miharu Shimokado (Japan/Brooks) - 2:27:54 (6th, Nagoya 2017)
Meseret Defar (Ethiopia) - 2:27:55 (8th, Amsterdam 2018)
Yukari Abe (Japan/Shimamura) - 2:28:02 (5th, Osaka Int'l 2019)
Kaori Yoshida (Japan/Team RxL) - 2:28:24 (7th, Nagoya 2017)
Rachel Cliff (Canada) - 2:28:53 (11th, Berlin 2018)
Helalia Johannes (Namibia) - 2:29:25 (6th, Vienna 2017)
Kayoko Fukushi (Japan/Wacoal) - 2:29:53 (14th, Rio Olympics 2016)
Hiroko Yoshitomi (Japan/Memolead) - 2:30:09 (1st, Fukuoka 2018)
Sairi Maeda (Japan/Daihatsu) - 2:30:54 (15th, Nagoya 2018)
Kaoru Nagao (Japan/Sunfield) - 2:30:54 (14th, Nagoya 2016)
Ayano Ikemitsu (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 2:31:21 (16th, Nagoya 2018)
Kikuyo Tsuzaki (Japan/Noritz) - 2:31:33 (2nd, Riga 2017)
Mizuki Tanimoto (Japan/Tenmaya) - 2:31:34 (3rd, Hokkaido 2018)
Mao Uesugi (Japan/Starts) - 2:31:49 (8th, Tokyo 2018)
Ellie Pashley (Australia) - 2:31:52 (6th, Cape Town 2018)
Saki Tokoro (Japan/Kyocera) - 2:32:11 (6th, Saitama 2018)
Yuko Mizuguchi (Japan/Denso) - 2:32:14 (17th, Nagoya 2018)
Yomogi Akasaka (Japan/Saitama Iryo Univ.) - 2:32:28 (18th, Nagoya 2018)
Hitomi Mizuguchi (Japan/Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 2:33:10 (8th, Osaka Int'l 2018)
Hiroko Miyauchi (Japan/Hokuren) - 2:33:55 (16th, Osaka Int'l 2017)
Mei Matsuyama (Japan/Noritz) - 2:34:35 (25th, Nagoya 2016)
Sakie Arai (Japan/Higo Ginko) - 2:34:40 (19th, Osaka Int'l 2017)

Debut
Mirai Waku (Japan/Univ. Ent.) - 1:43:57 (2nd, Ome 30 km 2016)
Anna Matsuda (Japan/Kyocera) - 1:46:27 (2nd, Kumanichi 30 km 2019)
Nami Hashimoto (Japan/Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:46:30 (2nd, Ome 30 km 2019)
Yuri Nozoe (Japan/Kojima Press) - 1:47:29 (2nd, Ome 30 km 2018)
Misaki Nishida (Japan/Edion) - 1:11:58 (13th, Nat'l Corporate Half 2019)
Ai Hosoda (Japan/Daihatsu) - 32:21.11 (10th, Corporate Women's Time Trials 2018)

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Andrew Armiger said…
Whoa, much looking forward to this!
February 26, 2019 at 9:11 AM
Brett Larner said…
Yep, it's going to be a great race, especially with Lake Biwa later the same day.

BTW, did you quit Twitter? I haven't been able to find you there lately.
February 27, 2019 at 8:11 AM
Unknown said…
Looking Forward to the Racing - hope the Womens' Marathon goes around the World Live… Please :)
March 8, 2019 at 10:01 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Hakone Ekiden Qualifying Race Entry Roster Sizes Increased from 14 to 16

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR have announced details for the qualifying half marathon for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The Yosenkai qualifying race will be held Oct. 17 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The combined times of the 10 fastest finishers from each participating team will be used for team scoring, with the 10 fastest teams going on the the main event next January and top-placing individuals from teams that do not qualify being names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team. One change from previous years is that the number of runners each school can enter has been increased from 14 to 16. Teams will still only be allowed to have from 10 to 12 athletes on the starting line, but the move gives coaches greater flexibility in making the final decision on their starting rosters. No changes have been made to the qualifying times of 34:00 for 10000 m or 1:13:00 for the half marathon, and the new earlier starting time of 8:30 a.m. introduced last year in an effort to mitigate ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Japan's Team for Nagoya Asian Games

The JOC announced the full lineups for the men's and women's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games . Being hosted in Japan the Asian Games are a pretty big deal, and it's pretty close to the maximum of 2 athletes per event. The men's and women's triple jump, the women's 400 m and the women's discus throw only have 1 athlete on the Japanese team, and it's a big FU to the shot putters apparently as nobody was named to either the men's or women's teams even though people ranked lower in the World Athletics Asian rankings than top JPN shot putters Daichi Morishita and Chiharu Saka did make the team in other events. But, let's focus on what it is, not what it isn't. Going off this week's Asian rankings 8 men and 5 women are ranked #1 in their event, with a total of 19 men and 14 women ranked in the top 3. Factor in a limit of 2 per nationality and the relays and Japan's chances of scoring a great medal haul are looking good. M...
1 comment
Read more