Olympic Team Members Ichiyama and Maeda Lead Osaka International Women's Marathon Field

On Dec. 22 the Osaka International Women's Marathon announced the elite field for its 40th running on Jan. 31, 2021 at a live streamed press conference. Like Fukuoka, Osaka is going ahead with a reduced domestic field of just 99 entrants and no international athletes. Tokyo Olympics marathon team members Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal), winner of this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon in a women-only national record of 2:20:29, and trials winner and 30 km national record holder Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) lead the entry list. With none of Osaka's usual international pacers, Osaka will use male pacers to try to set things up for a shot at Mizuki Noguchi's 2:19:12 national record.

The unsponsored Reia Iwade is the only other athlete who could realistically try to go with them, and for the rest of the field, which includes last year's 2nd-place Japanese woman Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita), there will be other men to pace at around 2:25. With ten women from 2:25 to 2:29 on the list and debuts from quality half marathoners Ayumi Hagiwara (Toyota Jidoshokki) and Moeno Shimizu (Panasonic) that should be a pretty solid group.

One other interesting name in the field is 62-year-old Mariko Yugeta, who in November last year became the first woman over age 60 to ever break 3 hours in the marathon with a 2:59:15 at the Shimonoseki Kaikyo Marathon. Yugeta qualified for Osaka earlier this month at the Osaka 30 km Road Race and will be the oldest woman ever to run it.

The Osaka International Women's Marathon will be broadcast live on Jan. 31. Check back closer to race day for more info on broadcast and streaming options.

40th Osaka International Women's Marathon

Elite Field Highlights

Osaka, 31 Jan. 2021

times listed are best within last three years except where noted

Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) - 2:20:29 (Nagoya 2020)

Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) - 2:23:48 (Osaka Int'l 2018)

Reia Iwade (Chiba T&F Assoc.) - 2:23:52 (Nagoya 2019)

Mizuki Tanimoto (Tenmaya) - 2:25:28 (Nagoya 2019)

Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) - 2:26:07 (Nagoya 2019)

Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) - 2:26:45 (Osaka Int'l 2020)

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

Yukari Abe (Shimamura) - 2:28:02 (Osaka Int'l 2019)

Mao Uesugi (Starts) - 2:28:02 (Nagoya 2019)

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

Shiho Takechi (Yamada Holdings) - 2:29:12 (Nagoya 2019)

Marie Imada (GRlab) - 2:29:35 (Saitama 2018)

Miharu Shimokado (Saitama T&F Assoc.) - 2:29:38 (Gold Coast 2018)

Hiroko Baino (Memolead) - 2:30:09 (Fukuoka 2019)

Anna Matsuda (Kyocera) - 2:30:35 (Nagoya 2020)

Mirai Waku (Univ. Ent.) - 2:33:03 (Asian Championships 2019)

Yuko Kawauchi (Nissei) - 2:33:57 (Nagoya 2019)

Yumiko Kinoshita (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 2:34:19 (Osaka Int'l 2019)

Tomomi Sawahata (Saitama T&F Assoc.) - 2:35:58 (Saitama 2018)

Kaoru Nagao (Sunfield AC) - 2:36:09 (Nagoya 2019)

Nao Isaka (Runs) - 2:36:48 (Katsuta 2019)

Hiroko Miyauchi (Hokuren) - 2:37:05 (Nagoya 2018)

Ruka Nakamura (Kojima Press) - 2:38:32 (Nagoya 2018)

Nozomi Kawato (JC Group) - 2:38:43 (Tokyo 2019)

Debut

Ayumi Hagiwara (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 1:10:16 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2019)

Moeno Shimizu (Panasonic) - 1:12:45 (Matsue Ladies Half 2018)

Rui Nishida (Sysmex) - 1:13:34 (Osaka Half 2018)

Yumika Nagahama (Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) - 1:13:37 (Nat'l Univ. Half 2019)

Mitsuki Furuta (Hagoromo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:13:52 (Kansai Univ. Half 2020)

Mariko Ueno (Bukkyo Univ.) - 1:13:59 (Kansai Univ. Half 2020)

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Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43

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