Skip to main content

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement



photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved

On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda, 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race.

At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai.

After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Berlin Marathon, where she ran 2:20:31 to become the 7th-fastest Japanese woman ever.

Hosoda had hoped that the Olympic trials would be a turning point in her career, but injuries prevented her from running up to her full potential there. "I really wanted to finish it feeling like I'd given it everything I had," she said, and not achieving that motivated her to keep going and target the 2025 Tokyo World Championships.

But the 2025 Tokyo Marathon didn't go as she hoped, and after finishing only 13th she failed to make the Worlds team. Finding herself less disappointed than she had expected, Hosoda took time to reflect on herself and where she was at. "I realized that my running up to then had been driven by trying to live up to the expectations of the people who were supporting me." Realizing that she didn't really feel the pure passion to pursue her goals anymore, she said, "That's when I decided to stop."

Dedicating her 2025-26 season to "expressing thanks to everyone who supported me through me running," Hosoda was 4th in the 5000 m at July's National Championships, then placed 6th in August's Sydney Marathon in 2:23:27 to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials. In November she was named MVP of the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships after running down Japan Post to play a key role in Edion's first-ever national title. "I'm really happy that we were finally able to win and that we could share our joy together," she said.

Hosoda will run Sunday's National Women's Ekiden for the Nagano Prefecture team. Her final race will be the Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon. "I want to go out with a great run so that I can look back with no regrets," she said. "I hope you'll all keep cheering for me until the very end."

source article:

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
It took me by surprise when I heard about her retirement announcement because she had an epic year last year in terms of achievements at all distances. The MGC qualification run in Sydney had me thinking we would have her running up until the MGC race at the very least. However, I recall Hanami Sekine from the JP team also surprising me and retiring after her debut 2018 Nagoya Marathon and also achieving MGC qualification. I understand she retired to pursue a career in teaching. Ai Hosoda's reasons are good because when you lose the fire it is best to call it a day. She finishes on a high with her individual race achievements and her MVP for Edion in the Queen's Ekiden victory last year. I think that is a great way to go and I wish her the best in whatever she pursues next. I hope she has an enjoyable run on Sunday and nice farewell at the Tokyo Marathon in March.
January 9, 2026 at 6:45 AM
Brett Larner said…
Hosoda's announcement was a surprise, but in Sekine's case it was due to an Achilles tendon injury from what I've been told.
January 9, 2026 at 9:54 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
53 comments
Read more

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more