Skip to main content

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

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...
2 comments
Read more