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A Chance to Score a Spot at the Olympics - Osaka International Women's Marathon Elite Field

The Osaka International Women's Marathon announced its elite field for its Jan. 26, 2020 running today. It's a race that serves one main purpose: to try to get a Japanese woman under 2:22:23 and onto the 2020 Sapporo Olympic marathon team. It's perfectly set up for that to happen, with three Ethiopian-born athletes and one Kenyan under 2:22 in the last two years, last year's winner Fatuma Sado (Ethiopia), pacing for the first 12 km from the woman with the stablest pace control in Japan, Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC), and three Japanese women who could conceivably hit 2:22:22 on a good day, Rei Ohara (Tenmaya), Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal).

Ohara, last year's runner-up, has run as fast as 2:23:20 and currently has a provisional place on the 2020 Olympic team after finishing 3rd at September's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials. She's the one who stands to get knocked out if anyone hits the 2:22:22 standard, so while Nagoya might have made more strategic sense here she is. A 28th-place finish at this past weekend's Sanyo Ladies Half wasn't encouraging.

Matsuda, whose 2:22:23 best in Berlin last year is the mark others have to beat to replace Ohara on the 2020 team, hasn't been in the same kind of shape ever since Berlin. She finished 4th at the Olympic trials in 2:29:51, putting her in the provisional alternate for the Olympic team. That isn't good enough for her, and being the 2018 Osaka champion and a local she's opted to go for it on home soil.

Which leaves Fukushi. She's the only one who has actually cleared the standard before, running 2:22:17 to win Osaka in 2016 and make the Rio Olympic team. She had an extended break from marathoning after Rio and didn't do another one until Osaka last year, where she dropped out after an unlucky fall, but with a 2:24:09 a few weeks later in Nagoya she seemed to be close to being back to fully operational. If she pulls it off in Osaka and nobody betters her time in Nagoya, Fukushi will make her fifth-straight Olympic team. And that would be something special indeed.

JRN will be on-site in Osaka on race weekend. Check back closer to race date for more info and live streaming options for following the race internationally. Take a look also at the women's and men's fields for the Osaka Half Marathon, held alongside the marathon.

39th Osaka International Women's Marathon

Elite Field Highlights
Osaka, 1/26/20
elite field listing
sub-elite field listing
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Haftamnesh Tesfay (Ethiopia) - 2:20:13 (Dubai 2018)
Meskerem Assefa (Ethiopia) - 2:20:36 (Frankfurt 2018)
Mimi Belete (Bahrain) - 2:21:22 (Amsterdam 2019)
Bornes Jepkirui (Kenya) - 2:21:26 (Llubljana 2019)
Mizuki Matsuda (Japan/Daihatsu) - 2:22:23 (Berlin 2018)
Sintayehu Lewetegn (Ethiopia) - 2:22:45 (Frankfurt 2018)
Kayoko Fukushi (Japan/Wacoal) - 2:24:09 (Nagoya Women's 2019)
Lisa Weightman (Australia) - 2:25:15 (London 2017)
Mizuki Tanimoto (Japan/Tenmaya) - 2:25:28 (Nagoya Women's 2019)
Fatuma Sado (Ethiopia) - 2:25:39 (Osaka Women's 2019)
Rei Ohara (Japan/Tenmaya) - 2:25:46 (Osaka Women's 2019)
Hanae Tanaka (Japan/Shiseido) - 2:26:19 (Osaka Women's 2017)
Katharina Steinruck (Germany) - 2:27:26 (Frankfurt 2019)
Hisami Ishii (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 2:27:35 (Nagoya Women's 2017)
Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan/AC Kita) - 2:27:39 (Kobe 2019)
Miharu Shimokado (Japan/Brooks) - 2:27:54 (Nagoya Women's 2017)
Yukari Abe (Japan/Shimamura) - 2:28:02 (Osaka Women's 2019)
Shiho Takechi (Japan/Yamada Denki) - 2:29:12 (Nagoya Women's 2019)
Munkhzaya Bayartsogt (Mongolia) - 2:29:18 (Gold Coast 2019)
Michi Numata (Japan/Toyota Jidoshokki) - 2:30:07 (Nagoya Women's 2018)
Ayaka Inoue (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:30:43 (Nagoya Women's 2018)
Shiho Kaneshige (Japan/GRlab Kanto) - 2:31:56 (Kobe 2019)
Misaki Nishida (Japan/Edion) - 2:32:58 (Nagoya Women's 2019)
Hitomi Mizuguchi (Japan/Daihatsu) - 2:33:10 (Osaka Women's 2018)
Hiroko Miyauchi (Japan/Hokuren) - 2:33:55 (Osaka Women's 2017)
Asuka Yamamoto (Japan/Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) - 2:34:26 (Tokyo 2018)
Mitsuko Ino (Japan/Linkstyle) - 2:34:39 (Osaka 2017)

Debut
Miku Daido (Japan/Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:11:50 (Osaka Half 2019)
Momoe Nobuoka (Japan/Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 1:12:28 (Nat'l Univ Women's Half 2018)

Pacers
Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC)
Delvine Meringor (Kenya)

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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