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Osaka International Women's Marathon Elite Field


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

Elite Field Highlights
Osaka, 30 Jan. 2022
complete elite field listing

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)

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Stefan said…
I'm very much looking forward to this event. This will indicate whether Sayaka Sato can step up and win an elite marathon and capitalise on her excellent middle distance performances this year. I feel Mizuki Matsuda will run well here as she has done previously. I fully expect a time below 2:23:00 and hopefully one below 2:22:00. I am a fan of Sayaka Sato so I really hope she can break 2:23:00 and achieve a PB here. I think it is a race between these two.
December 23, 2021 at 4:20 PM
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