Skip to main content

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field


2022 Oregon World Championships gold medalist and 2023 Budapest World Championships silver medalist Gotytom Gebreslase leads the elite field for the Mar. 10 Nagoya Women's Marathon, the last chance for Japanese women to steal a place on the Paris Olympics team. The last two years Nagoya has had a $250,000 payout for the winner, the biggest in the sport, but with the exchange rate and Japan's economic situation being what it is that's down to $150,000 this year. That's still enough to pull in a big talent like Gebreslase, the only woman in the field positioned to verrrry hypothetically drag one of the Japanese women to the 2:18:58 they'd need to pick up the 3rd Paris team spot.

Ai Hosoda was 3rd at October's Olympic trials but was bumped down to 1st alternate by Honami Maeda's 2:18:59 NR last month in Osaka. Hosoda, Ayuko Suzuki, Rika Kaseda and Yuka Ando have run under or within seconds of the 2:21:41 they needed before Maeda's run, but 2:18 puts it pretty much out of range without a miracle. That's not to say it's not going to be a good race, with 2023 Asian Games gold medalist Eunice Chumba and sub-2:21 runner Delvine Meringor also up in position to keep it fast, and an exciting debut from sub-67 half marathoner Pauline Kamulu. Suzuki and Ando both come in off good half marathon performances in the last couple of weeks, so there's a good chance either of them could translate that into a big marathon performance. The only question is how big.

Fuji TV will have the live broadcast starting at 9:00 a.m. local time on Mar. 10. Check back closer to race date for more info.

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Nagoya, Aichi, 10 Mar. 2024
times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted

Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) - 2:18:11 (Oregon WC 2022)
Eunice Chebichii Chumba (Bahrain) - 2:20:02 (Seoul 2022)
Delvine Relin Meringor (Romania) - 2:20:49 (Barcelona 2023)
Ai Hosoda (Japan/Edion) - 2:21:42 (London 2022) - withdrawal announced Mar. 1
Ayuko Suzuki (Japan/Japan Post) - 2:21:52 (Nagoya 2023)
Rika Kaseda (Japan/Daihatsu) - 2:21:55 (Berlin 2022)
Yuka Ando (Japan/Wacoal) - 2:22:22 (Nagoya 2022)
Violah Cheptoo (Kenya) - 2:22:44 (New York 2021)
Momoko Watanabe (Japan/Tenmaya) - 2:23:08 (Osaka 2023)
Giovanna Epis (Italy) - 2:23:46 (Hamburg 2023)
Eloise Wellings (Australia) - 2:25:10 (Nagoya 2022)
Hikari Onishi (Japan/Japan Post) - 2:25:54 (Berlin 2022)
Camille French (New Zealand) - 2:26:08 (Valencia 2023)
Zhixuan Li (China) - 2:26:28 (Nagoya 2023)
Kaori Morita (Japan/Panasonic) - 2:26:31 (Tokyo 2023) - withdrawal announced Mar. 1
Yuri Karasawa (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:27:27 (Osaka 2023)
Honoka Tanaike (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:27:30 (Nagoya 2023)
Sakiho Tsutsui (Japan/Yamada Holdings) - 2:27:38 (Hofu 2023)
Yuyu Xia (China) - 2:28:57 (Beijing 2022)
Kaena Takeyama (Japan/Senko) - 2:29:20 (Osaka Women's 2023)
Beverly Ramos (Puerto Rico) - 2:31:10 (Oregon WC 2022)
Yuri Mitsune (Japan/18 Ginko) - 2:31:10 (Nagoya 2023)
Yuki Nakamura (Japan/Panasonic) - debut - 1:46:47 (Ome 30 km 2023)
Pauline Kamulu (Kenya/Route Inn Hotels) - debut - 1:07:22 (Marugame Half 2023) - withdrawal announced Mar. 1

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more