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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 Olympics team, only to DNS shortly before the race with injury. Last fall she ran 2:24:36 in Berlin off a relatively short build, and her only recent result is a 1:10:07 from the Houston Half in January vs. her 1:08:28 PB. That's not encouraging, but when she ran her NR Maeda didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness and it didn't matter at all.

In pre-race comments Maeda said that her training in Albuquerque had gone well, but that it was a completely different approach to what she had done before her NR. She didn't give a clear time goal at the pre-race press conference, saying only, "I want to perform up to my current ability." Chepkirui said, "I'm here to make it 2 in a row. I'm targeting 2:20 or faster," and Sato added, "I want to better my PB." With front group pacing set at that level it won't be a surprise to see a winning time of 2:19 to 2:20.

2nd-group pacing is set at 2:23:30 to clear the time standard for qualification for Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials, the Oct. 2027 MGC Race. The next tier of people in the race, Yuka Ando, Majida Maayouf, Ayuko Suzuki, and Rika Kaseda, could go either way, with another layer beyond that sure to make the 2nd group a big one. Women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima and 2023 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Hikaru Kitagawa are both running their 2nd marathons, Goshima likely to go with the front group after saying her training had gone smoothly this time compared to before her 2:26:08 debut last year, and Kitagawa the 2nd pack.

There's also 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. Kabasawa said pre-race that she has trained to go 3:20/km, a little bit off what the lead group is targeting but close enough that it won't be surprising to see her tagged on to the lead group. Any Japanese woman running 2:23:30 or better qualifies for the MGC Race, or anyone in the top 6 Japanese and under 2:27:00. As of right now 26 men but only 10 women have qualified, so a good day Sunday should see another 6 women join the list.

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)
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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