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Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field




Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui, Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta, 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda, 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that.

If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chepyego Kaptich and Sato. Women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima had an OK debut in Nagoya last year in 2:26:08 and is back to try to build on that, and 2023 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Hikaru Kitagawa ran a 1:10:29 PB at Marugame at the beginning of February that suggest room for improvement on her debut.  There's a big group of people making their debuts including Wakana Kabasawa and Yuna Takahashi both fresh off sub-1:09:30 half marathon PBs earlier this year. Count on most of them to go with at least a 2:20-paced race.

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Nagoya, Aichi, 8 Mar. 2026
times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted

Aynalem Desta (Ethiopia) - 2:17:37 (Amsterdam 2025)
Sheila Chepkirui (Kenya) - 2:17:49 (Berlin 2023)
Honami Maeda (Japan/Tenmaya) - 2:18:59 (Osaka Women's 2024)
Selly Chepyego Kaptich (Kenya/Kraftia) - 2:20:03 (Barcelona 2023)
Eunice Chebichii Chumba (Bahrain) - 2:20:31 (Rotterdam 2023)
Sayaka Sato (Japan/Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:20:59 (Nagoya Women's 2025)
Yuka Ando (Japan/Shimamura) - 2:21:18 (Nagoya Women's 2024)
Majida Maayouf (Spain) - 2:21:27 (Valencia 2023)
Ayuko Suzuki (Japan/Japan Post) - 2:21:33 (Nagoya Women's 2024)
Rika Kaseda (Japan/Daihatsu) - 2:22:11 (Nagoya Women's 2024)
Genevieve Gregson (Australia) - 2:23:08 (Valencia 2023)
Hayat Benhima (Morocco) - 2:24:48 (Marrakech 2026)
Soukaina Atanane (Morocco) - 2:24:57 (Valenica 2024)
Natsuki Omori (Japan/Daihatsu) - 2:25:36 (Nagoya Women's 2025)
Kotona Ota (Japan/Japan Post) - 2:25:56 (Nagoya Women's 2022)
Rino Goshima (Japan/Shiseido) - 2:26:08 (Nagoya Women's 2025)
Ayumi Morita (Japan/Tokyo Metro) - 2:26:48 (Hofu 2025)
Sakiho Tsutsui (Japan/Univ. Ent.) - 2:26:51 (Rotterdam 2024)
Mayu Nishikawa (Japan/Starts) - 2:27:13 (Osaka Women's 2024)
Honoka Tanaike (Japan/Shimamura) - 2:27:30 (Nagoya Women's 2023)
Yuri Mitsune (Japan/Hitachi) - 2:29:04 (Nagoya Women's 2025)
Kaena Takayama (Japan/Senko) - 2:29:20 (Osaka Women's 2023)
Mayuka Fujita (Japan/Route Inn Hotels) - 2:30:05 (Nagoya Women's 2025)
Pauline Kamulu (Kenya/Route Inn Hotels) - 2:31:04 (Hokkaido 2025)
Hikaru Kitagawa (Japan/Univ. Ent.) - 2:34:11 (Osaka Women's 2024)

Debut
Wakana Kabasawa (Japan/Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2026)
Yuna Takahashi (Japan/Shimamura) - 1:09:23 (Osaka Half 2026)
Sora Shinozakura (Japan/Yokohama T&F) - 1:10:06 (Marugame Half 2024)
Rinka Hida (Japan/Daiichi Seimei) - 1:10:10 (Osaka Half 2023)
Hikaru Kitagawa (Japan/Univ. Ent.) - 1:10:29 (Marugame Half 2026)
Momoko Hanano (Japan/Hitachi) - 1:11:06 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2024)
Aika Murakami (Japan/Tokyo Metro) - 1:12:08 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)
Yui Kawabe (Japan/Shimamura) - 1:12:55 (Osaka Half 2026)

photos c/o Nagoya Women's Marathon, all rights reserved
text © 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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