31st Jan 2021, Japan Olympic team member Mao Ichiyama wins the Women’s Osaka Marathon, in a course record of 2:21:11. Similarly to the London Marathon in October 2020, this race was moved off public streets due to the pandemic. Rerouting it to 14+ laps around Osaka’s Nagai Park, finishing inside Yanmar Stadium Nagai. Honami Maeda finished second with a time of 2:23:30, knocking 8 seconds off her previous best. 

This race was also a debut for the new Nike Zoom Alphafly NEXT% colourway, ‘Hyper Jade’, worn by 23 year old Mao Ichiyama. Hyper Jade colour has recently surfaced with the Nike Tempo NEXT% and the Air Zoom Victory in Japan - it seems Nike will now be rolling out this colour across other running shoes. No public release date has been confirmed yet, but you can likely anticipate Nike will launch this colour in the near future. 

Ichiyama’s win and Maeda’s personal best were not the only big stories of the day. Mariko Yugeta, a 62 year old women achieved an age group world record of 2:52:13 - placing her in 48th place. Smashing her own previous record of 2:56:54 which she set herself in 2019. Yugeta became the first W60 runner to break 3 hours in the marathon.

Images: @Ekiden_news