Great conditions on the second day of Japan's National Track and Field Championships , U20 National Championships and Paris Olympics trials helped athletes set new National Championship meet records in the women's pole vault, men's 400 mH, men's and women's 1500 m, and men's 5000 m, with three of the five record setters and guaranteeing themselves places on the Paris Olympics team. Complete results here . Women's Pole Vault Final National record holder Misaki Morota cleared her minimum goal, the win in 4.31 m to score enough points to move from 33rd to 32nd in the 32-deep Paris Olympic quota. Morota took two attempts to get over 4.30 m, but on her first try at a Japanese National Championships meet record 4.41 m she got it done. That gave her enough points to move to 30th, but it would take clearing 4.50, 2 cm higher than Morota's NR, to move to 29th. That proved to be out of range, leaving Morota in good position but still waiting to see the outcome of...
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* Rino Goshima's debut marathon performance. I have high expectations because of her previous road running exploits;
* Rika Kaseda - can she capitalize on her outstanding half marathon form;
* Sayaka Sato - in training her focus has been on building endurance for the 2nd half of the race where she has inevitably faltered in the past. Can she deliver results now?
* How will the 2 Australian athletes (Isobel Batt-Doyle and Leanne Pompeani) perform, (after Jessica Stenson's 2:22:56 PB at Tokyo last week, where she surprisingly, for me, beat all Japanese athletes.)
My big hope is that Rino Goshima has a great debut marathon. On paper, she may be the one to break Honami Maeda's national record in the future. At present, I can't see anyone breaking that record for some time unless Honami Maeda does it herself when she returns.