The Osaka International Women's Marathon announced its elite field for its Jan. 26, 2020 running today. It's a race that serves one main purpose: to try to get a Japanese woman under 2:22:23 and onto the 2020 Sapporo Olympic marathon team. It's perfectly set up for that to happen, with three Ethiopian-born athletes and one Kenyan under 2:22 in the last two years, last year's winner Fatuma Sado (Ethiopia), pacing for the first 12 km from the woman with the stablest pace control in Japan, Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC), and three Japanese women who could conceivably hit 2:22:22 on a good day, Rei Ohara (Tenmaya), Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal). Ohara, last year's runner-up, has run as fast as 2:23:20 and currently has a provisional place on the 2020 Olympic team after finishing 3rd at September's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials . She's the one who stands to get knocked out if anyone hits the 2:22:22 standard, so while Nagoya ...
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