Workenesh Edesa will defend the Osaka Marathon title in a very strong competition

Ethiopian runner Workenesh Edesa will return to the Osaka Marathon as the course record holder and hoping to defend her title from last year. In 2024, she shaved more than two seconds off the course record to win and equal her personal best of 2:18:51 hours set in Berlin in 2022. Workenesh Edesa finished 8 seconds ahead of Japanese runner Honami Maeda, who set an Asian record of 2:18:59 hours.

Workenesh Edesa’s rivals this year will include Japanese long-distance runners Mizuki Matsuda and Natsumi Matsushita, who finished third and seventh in 2024. Also competing this year will be Israelian Olympics athlete Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, who has the fastest time of 2:17:45 hours from the 2020 Tokyo Marathon.

In 2019, Workenesh Edesa smashed also the TCS Sydney Marathon Women’s Race Record.

Her PB of 2:18:51 makes Workenesh Edesa the second-fastest in the field behind Salpeter. Her sole marathon of 2024 was the Olympic marathon in Paris, where she placed ninth, while she finished third in Boston and fourth in the World Championships marathon in Budapest in 2023.