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Rikuren Announces Japanese Team for Asian Championships

by Brett Larner

On June 15 Rikuren released the lineup of the Japanese team for next month's Asian Athletics Championships, to be held July 7-10 in Kobe. The long distance squads are overall strong, with the men's team in particular featuring the top three Japanese men from both the 5000 m and 10000 m at last weekend's National Championships. The women's team includes the 2nd through 4th place women from the National Championships 5000 m, missing just winner Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), but is weaker in the 10000 m as only the 4th and 5th-place finishers from Nationals are on the list. A conspicuous absence from both Nationals and the Asian Championships team is top-ranked Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal).

2011 Asian Athletics Championships - Japanese National Team
July 7-10, Kobe, Hyogo

Men's Long Distance
Kazuya Watanabe (Team Shikoku Denryoku)
Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin)
Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.)
Akinobu Murasawa (Tokai Univ.)
Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta)
Tsuyoshi Takeda (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC)
Hiroyoshi Umegae (Team NTN)
Aoi Matsumoto (Team Otsuka Seiyaku)

Women's Long Distance
Hitomi Niiya (Chiba Pref.)
Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki)
Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya)
Kaoru Nagao (Team Univ. Ent.)
Hitomi Nakamura (Team Panasonic)
Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC)
Misato Horie (Team Noritz)

Men's Middle Distance
Masato Yokota (Team Fujitsu)
Takeshi Kuchino (Team Fujitsu)
Hiroshi Ino (Team Fujitsu)
Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu)

Women's Middle Distance
Akari Kishikawa (Hasegawa AC)
Ruriko Kubo (Team Edion)
Mika Kobayashi (Suma Gakuen H.S.)
Akane Yabushita (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

Men's Sprints
Masahi Eriguchi (Team Osaka Gas)
Yusuke Kotani (Ritsumeikan Univ.)
Sota Kawatsura (Chuo Univ.)
Hitoshi Saito (Team Sunmesse)
Yuichi Kobayashi (Hosei Univ.)
Shota Iizuka (Chuo Univ.)
Yuzo Kanemaru (Team Otsuka Seiyaku)
Hideyuki Hirose (Keio Univ.)
Yusuke Ishitsuka (Team Mizuno)
Shinji Takahira (Team Fujitsu)
Kei Takase (Team Fujitsu)

Women's Sprints
Kana Ichikawa (Chukyo Univ.)
Nao Okabe (Team Mizuno)
Momoko Takahashi (Team Fujitsu)
Chisato Fukushima (Hokkaido Hi-Tec AC)
Saori Imai (Gakukan Univ.)
Mio Shingu (Higashi Osaka Univ.)
Chisato Tanaka (Team Kyudenko)
Sayaka Aoki (Team Toho Ginko)

Men's Hurdles
Wataru Yazawa (Hosei Univ.)
Kenji Yahata (Team Monteroza)
Takayuki Kishimoto (Hosei Univ.)
Yuta Imazaki (Team Aima)
Takatoshi Abe (Chukyo Univ.)

Women's Hurdles
Ayako Kimura (Team Edion)
Airi Ito (Kansai Univ.)
Satomi Kubokura (Niigata Albirex AC)
Miyabe Tago (J. Vic AC)
Shiori Miki (Higashi Osaka Univ.)

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
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