Fatuma Sado Wins Osaka Women's Marathon, Falls Short of Time Needed to Qualify for Ethiopian Olympic Team

By Adam Kopet

Fatuma Sado won Sunday's Osaka Women's Marathon in 2:25:39. It was the Ethiopian woman's fifth marathon in a year and her first win since she won the 2018 Xiamen International Marathon in January last year.

However, according to Ken Nakamura for the IAAF, Sado believes she did not run fast enough to qualify for the 2020 Ethiopian Olympic team, which is her big goal. She owns a personal best of 2:24:16 from 2015.

The big moves in the race were made by Japan's Rei Ohara. She put in surges at 30 and 35 kilometers, but neither proved decisive enough for her to pull away to victory. She instead finished second in 2:25:46, seven seconds back of Sado, who made a move of her own in the last four kilometers.

The Osaka Women's Marathon served as a qualifying race for the Marathon Grand Championships, Japan's version of an Olympic Trials race. Ohara had already qualified for her race at the Nagoya Women's Marathon last year. However, fourth-place finisher, Madoka Nakano, also qualified with her time of 2:27:39, beating the 2:28 qualifying time.