World marathon champion Ruth Chepng'etich is among an elite cast of athletes who will be competing at next month's Nagoya Marathon in Japan.
The winner of the March 13 race will walk away with Sh28 million ($250,000), the highest ever prize money awarded to a female marathoner in history.
Chepng'etich will be reunited with some of the athletes who competed at last year's Tokyo Olympics where she had to pull out of the women's marathon midway.
They include Kenyan-Israeli runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, who finished 66th in the same race, as well as Japanese Yuka Ando who competed in the women's 10,000m.
Ando — who has twice finished second in Nagoya in 2017 and 2020 — will be joined by countrywoman, Mirai Waku, who represented Japan at the 2016 World Half Marathon Championship in Cardiff, Wales.
For Chepng'etich, Nagoya represents a chance for redemption after her Olympics disappointment as well as the opportunity to extend her ruthless performance from October's Chicago Marathon.
She was also among participants at January's National Cross Country Championship in Eldoret where she competed in the women's senior race.
"We are delighted to welcome such outstanding women athletes in this year’s race. While it will be exciting to see how the competition unfolds, we are committed to supporting all women runners and their challenges," race organizers said in a statement.
The statement adds: "Japan has been hit by the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, but our first priority is always the safety and security of our runners, volunteers, and everyone concerned in the event. Taking advantage of the experience of having safely staged in-person races under the pandemic in the past two years, we are preparing to hold this year’s race by closely working with the local authorities and medical experts and taking all possible measures against infection."
Invited Elite Athletes
Ruth Chepngetich (Kenya)
Lonah Chemtai Salpeter (Israel)
Yuka Ando (Japan)
Sinead Diver (Australia)
Rie Kawauchi (Japan)
Hanae Tanaka (Japan)
Mirai Waku (Japan)
Ai Hosoda (Japan)
