Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich and Isreal’s Lonah Salpeter are leading the field at the Nagoya Women’s Marathon Sunday, March 13.
The 2019 World Marathon Champion and 2021 Chicago Marathon winner said, “I chose (to run) the Nagoya Women’s Marathon because Japan is a nice place. The environment is good, and as women, we have to encourage ourselves to do better. I want to run a personal best in this race.”
“I’m happy to be here. It’s my first time and I hope to do my best on Sunday. And I wish all the ladies all the best,” and when asked about pre-race training, she added “My training was good. I was in Kenya for eight weeks, so I’m ready for Sunday. I’m trusting my training.”
Challenging Chepngetich and Salpeter from Japan, Tokyo 2020 Olympian in the 10,000m and the two-time second-place finisher of the Nagoya Women’s Marathon 2017 and 2020, Yuka Ando said “I’m excited to run with such strong and wonderful athletes. I want to try my best to see how far I can go and aim for victory as a challenger.”
Salpeter has run as fast as 2:17:45. Chepngetich ran the Dubai Marathon 2:17:08 in 2019. The 27-year-old also owns the Kenyan half-marathon record at 64:02.
In addition to the elite athletes, the Nagoya Women’s Marathon will host general runners residing in Japan. Unfortunately, non-elite runners who live outside of Japan will not be able to participate in the race on-site due to the Japanese government’s border restrictions over the Omicron variant and have been asked to join the virtual event the Nagoya Women’s Online Marathon 2022.
Since this year, the first prize for the Nagoya Women’s Marathon has become the largest in the world for marathon running: US$250,000. All eyes are on who will be the first female athlete in marathon history to win the highest prize money. The race will be streamed live for free to 33 countries and regions (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States of America) on the race’s official website at https://womens-marathon.nagoya/en/broadcast.php.
