Skip to main content

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming




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, cold for the season at 5˚ at the start dropping to 4˚ by the finish with a moderate 4 m/s NW wind and sunny skies, setting up the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time.

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)
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

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Tokyo Marathon Preview

The Tokyo Marathon kicks off the 2026 Abbott World Marathon Majors this Sunday. The forecast is looking pretty good, maybe a bit on the warm side but not like last year or even last weekend in Osaka , and with quality fields in all 4 races there's a decent chance we'll see some fast times on Tokyo's borderline record-eligible downhill course. As usual, JRN's Brett Larner will host Nippon TV's international broadcast on local affiliates in 115 countries worldwide starting at 9:00 a.m. local time Sunday. Details on where to watch the broadcast here . A live leaderboard will be posted here on race morning. In the wheelchair races Switzerland's Catherine Debrunner and Japan's Tomoki Suzuki both broke the Tokyo course records last year and are back for more this year. Debrunner could get a race out of British athlete Eden Rainbow-Cooper who she beat by just 1 second in Berlin 3 years ago, and if they go the whole way there could be another new CR. Suzuki w...
2 comments
Read more

2026 Tokyo Marathon Elite Field

The Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon has great fields this year, so let's get right to it. The women's field has 3 of last year's top 10, winner for the 2nd year in a row and Tokyo CR holder Sutume Asefa Kebede , 3rd-placer and 2025 Chicago winner Hawi Feysa , and 5th-placer and 2025 Berlin winner Rosemary Wanjiru , plus 2024 Valencia winner Megertu Alemu , 2025 Prague winner Bertukan Welde , 2024 Paris winner Mestawut Fikir , 2024 Osaka winner Waganesh Mekasha , former WR holder Brigid Kosgei , and a lot more. Japanese hopes pretty much go to all-time #7 Ai Hosoda , 2:20:31 in Berlin 2024 but who announced this month that she is retiring after Tokyo despite having qualified for the 2028 Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th in Sydney last year. Other internationals include Canadian Malindi Elmore , American Sara Hall , a big Chinese group led by Yuyu Xia , Poland's Aleksandra Brzezińska and Australian Vanessa Wilson . The men's race has 5 of last year's top 1...
4 comments
Read more

Hassan Runs NR/CR for Osaka Win, Dibaba Hits Women's CR, Yoshida and Shuley Earn Legends

This was maybe the most entertaining marathon in years. After rocking the 2nd leg at last year's Hakone Ekiden Hibiki Yoshida (Sunbelx) ran an incredible 1:01:01 CR for the 21.9 km New Year Ekiden 2nd leg last month, equivalent to a 58:47 half marathon. That predicted a 2:03:27 marathon if he ever ran one, and when Yoshida announced he was debuting at this year's Osaka Marathon he wasted no time in saying it'd be a shot at the 2:04:55 NR. Things went out fast enough with a 14:50 split through 5 km, 2:05:11 pace, but Yoshida just couldn't hold back and took off at 8 km. He clearly DGAF about what was probably going to happen as his projected finish kept getting faster, 2:04:41, 2:04:15, 2:03:51, 2:03:40, edging closer and closer to what his New Year time predicted, but not helped along by the fact that he missed 4 out of his first 5 drink bottles. People laughed, and then cheered him on. 30 km was the first time he slowed, his finish projection dropping to 2:03:53, an...
4 comments
Read more