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

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

japan running news

Search This Blog