Komatsu, Nakaya, Hironaka and Tanaka Lead Japan's Team for World XC

Japan has sent a roster of 22 athletes to this weekend's World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, full squads for both junior races and the senior men's race, a team of only four for the senior women's race, and giving the mixed relay a miss.

The Senior Men's team is young but one of the better in recent years, led by towering national champion Yuta Bando (Hosei Univ.). Yohei Komatsu played a key role in Tokai University's first-ever Hakone Ekiden win in January, breaking the decades-old Eighth Stage course record to put Tokai into the lead. Yuhi Nakaya (Waseda University) was the star 1st-year on the Hakone circuit this year, Waseda head coach Yutaka Sagara saying that he think Nakaya has the potential to be better than multi-national record holder and Waseda alumnus Suguru Osako. Following Hakone Nakaya spent time training for World XC in Kenya.

The Senior Women's lineup is thin. Six of the top eight placers at Nationals were already on the Japanese national team for April's Doha Asian Championships, and of them only national champion Nozomi Tanaka (ND28 AC) and 8th-place Yui Yabuta (Otsuka Seiyaku) are opting to double. 6th and 7th-placers Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.) and Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) will fill the others' spots to give the women the bare number for team scoring.

For Tanaka, the 3000 m gold medalist at last summer's World U120 Championships it will be her longest race to date and international debut in a senior race. It will also have personal significance. Ten years ago when she was 9 years old, her mother Chihiro Tanaka won the 2009 Copenhagen Marathon. Nozomi grew up with the image of the far-off land of Denmark in her mind and the goal of someday running there. Now a national champion at age 19, she'll get her chance this weekend as the leader of the senior women's national team.

The always-strong U20 Women's squad and sometimes-strong U20 Men's squad are solid, each featuring the top six from its race at Nationals led by junior national champions Ririka Hironaka (Nagasaki Shogyo H.S.) and Jun Kasai (Kansai Soka H.S.). It's been a few years since the U20 women won a team medal but given their history of success at scoring bronze they should be in the race for a team medal.

IAAF World Cross Country Championships

Japanese National Team
Aarhus, Denmark, 3/31/19
complete team listing

Senior Men's 10 km
Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 28:29.23 (10000 m)
Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 28:31.06 (10000 m)
Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) - 28:34.19 (10000 m)
Yohei Komatsu (Tokai Univ.) - 28:35.63 (10000 m)
Yuta Bando (Hosei Univ.) - 28:44.87 (10000 m)
Yuhi Nakaya (Waseda Univ.) - 29:07.07 (10000 m)

Senior Women's 10 km
Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) - 32:51.98 (10000 m)
Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.) - 33:34.70 (10000 m)
Nozomi Tanaka (ND28 AC) - 15:15.80 (5000 m)
Yui Yabuta (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 16:22.54 (5000 m)

U20 Men's 8 km
Jun Kasai (Kansai Soka H.S.)
Issei Sato (Yachiyo Shoin H.S.)
Ryuto Igawa (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.)
Tetta Shiratori (Saitama Sakae H.S.)
Mebuki Suzuki (Saku Chosei H.S.)
Taiga Nakanishi (Kanazawa Ryukoku H.S.)

U20 Women's 6 km
Ririka Hironaka (Nagasaki Shogyo H.S.)
Ayuka Kazama (Narita H.S.)
Chika Kosakai (Narita H.S.)
Miku Sakai (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.)
Hikari Onishi (Suma Gakuen H.S.)
Hazuki Doi (Suma Gakuen H.S.)

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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