Japan's Potential Team for Tokyo World Championships

With less than 3 weeks to go until the Aug. 24 deadline to qualify for September's Tokyo World Championships let's take a look at what kind of team Japan might have. In terms of potential medalists there are 6 solid candidates, all the usual suspects. World and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi leads the women's javelin throw. Ranked 5th, Nanako Fujii has an outside chance in the women's 20 km race walk.

On the men's side, Ryuji Miura looks to be a contender in the 3000 mSC where he's ranked 3rd. Toshikazu Yamanishi and Satoshi Maruo are ranked 1-2 in the 20 km race walk, with Masatora Kawano at 3rd in the 35 km race walk. After that it's the always-strong men's 4x100 m, ranked 2nd, although the big question is who is going to be on the team. In the marathon, you want to feel like Fukuoka CR breaker Yuya Yoshida has a chance.

The women's javelin, marathon and race walks look like the only events where Japan is likely to field full squads of 3 athletes, although it could happen in the 5000 m and 10000 m where Ririka Hironaka, Kana Mizumoto and Rio Goshima are all right on the edge of the quota.

Along with the marathon and race walks, the 110 mH and 100 m are the only other events that will for sure have 3 Japanese men entered. In the 110 mH Rachid Muratake, Shunsuke Izumiya and Shusei Nomoto have all hit the 13.27 qualifying standard. 4 men have hit the 100 m standard of 10.00, Yoshihide Kiryu, Sorato Shimizu and Yuhi Mori all having done it in the last 2 weeks but leader Abdul Hakim Sani Brown not since the Olympics last summer and in poor form all season. The 200 m might also have a full squad, with Towa Uzawa under the 20.16 standard, Soshi Mizukubo comfortably inside the quota at 28th of 48, and veteran Shota Iizuka hanging on at 43rd.

The men's high jump will very probably have 3 people as well, Ryoichi Akamatsu, Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa all in safe positions inside the quota without having hit the 2.33 m qualifying standard. The 400 mH, 3000 mSC, long jump and javelin throw could have 3 people too, all 4 events having 1 or 2 people barely inside the quota who need to survive the next few weeks to make it.

Current contenders for the team are below, with field size, qualifying standard and rankings points needed for the bottom spot in the quota for each event. Athletes with an asterisk have already earned guaranteed places on the team based on hitting the standard and placing top 3 in the National Championships or other selection event.

Women

400 m (48 / 50.75 / 1206)

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Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 1200 - 4th, Nationals

800 m (56 / 1:59.00 / 1190)

43. Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1236 - 1st, Nationals

1500 m (56 / 4:01.50 / 1162)

*26. Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 3:59.69 - 1st, Nationals

47. Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1180 - 2nd, Nationals

5000 m (42 / 14:50.00 / 1179)

*12. Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 14:31.88 - 1st, Nationals

35. Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1202 - 7th, Nationals

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Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 1172 - 2nd, Nationals

Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 1171 - 3rd, Nationals

10000 m (27 / 30:20.00 / 1218)

12. Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 1263 - 1st, Nationals

19. Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 1241 - 2nd, Nationals

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Rino Goshima (Shiseido) - 1212 - DNS, Nationals

100 mH (40 / 12.73 / 1234)

27. Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 (+0.7) - 2nd, Nationals

29. Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 1281 - 1st, Nationals

3000 mSC (36 / 9:18.00 / 1212)

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Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 1207 - 2nd, Nationals

High Jump (36 / 1.97 m / 1161)

25. Nagisa Takahashi (Senko) - 1193 - 2nd, Nationals

Long Jump (36 / 6.86 m / 1172)

34. Sumire Hata (Sumitomo Denko) - 1173 - 3rd, Nationals

Triple Jump (36 / 14.55 m / 1158)

26. Maoko Takashima (Kyudenko) - 1193 - 1st, Nationals

34. Mariko Morimoto (Orico) - 1160 - 3rd, Nationals

Discus Throw (36 / 64.50 / 1104)

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Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex) - 1097 - 1st, Nationals

Javelin Throw (36 / 64.00 / 1091)

*1. Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) - wild card - DNS, Nationals

15. Momone Ueda (Zenrin) - 1204 - 1st, Nationals

23. Sae Takemoto (Orico) - 1148 - 3rd, Nationals

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Marina Saito (Suzuki) - 1091 - 2nd, Nationals

Marathon (100 / 2:23:30 / 1035)

*13. Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:20:59 - 2nd, Nagoya 2025

*14. Yuka Ando (Shimamura) - 2:21:18 - 1st, Nagoya 2024

*15. Kana Kobayashi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:21:19 - 2nd, Osaka Women's 2025

20 km Race Walk (50 / 1:29:00 / 1120)

*5. Nanako Fujii (Edion) - 1:26:33 - 1st, Nationals

*19. Kumiko Okada (Fujitsu) - 1:28:17 - 2nd, Nationals

35. Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1166 - 4th, Nationals

Yukiko Umeno (Juntendo Univ.) - 1131 - 3rd, Nationals

35 km Race Walk (50 / 2:48.00 / 929)

*20. Yukiko Umeno (Juntendo Univ.) - 2:46:53 - 1st, Nationals

29. Masumi Fuchise (Kenso) - 1146 - 3rd, Nationals

32. Maika Yagi (Chiba Kogyo Ginko) - 1094 - 4th, Nationals

Yuki Yoshizumi (Funabashi Seikeigeka) - 1090 - 5th, Nationals

Mao Tatsumi (Takoshige) - 1045 - 6th, Nationals

Sayori Matsumoto (Chiba Kogyo Ginko) - 1007 - 7th, Nationals

Men

100 m (48 / 10.00 / 1219)

19. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Toray) - 9.96 (+0.5) - 4th, Heat 7, Nationals

29. Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 9.99 (+1.5) - 1st, Nationals

32. Sorato Shimizu (Seiryo H.S.) - 10.00 (+1.7) - 4th, SF3, Nationals

Yuhi Mori (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 10.00 (+1.3) - 7th, Nationals

Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) - 1250 - DQ, Heat 6, Nationals

200 m (48 / 20.16 / 1196)

*23. Towa Uzawa (JAL) - 20.12 (+0.8) - 1st, Nationals

28. Soshi Mizukubo (Miyazaki T&F Assoc.) - 20.14 (+0.1) - 7th, SF2, Nationals

43. Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 1208 - 3rd, Nationals

400 m (48 / 44.85 / 1226)

36. Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) - 44.84 - 4th, Nationals

48. Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 1226 - DQ, Nationals

800 m (56 / 1:44.50 / 1213)

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Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) - 1210 - 1st, Nationals

1500 m (56 / 3:33.00 / 1212)

55. Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) - Asian Champion - 1st, Nationals

5000 m (42 / 13:01.00 / 1214)

42. Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 1214 - 2nd, Nationals

10000 m (27 / 27:00.00 / 1240)

25. Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 1240 - 2nd, Nationals

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Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 1232 - 1st, Nationals

110 mH (40 / 13.27 / 1222)

*9. Rachid Muratake (JAL) - 13.08 (+1.4) - DNS, Nationals

*17. Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) - 13.19 (+0.3) - 1st, Nationals

*18. Shusei Nomoto (Ehime T&F Assoc.) - 13.21 (+0.6) - 2nd, Nationals

400 mH (40 / 48.50 / 1238)

*31. Shunta Inoue (Fujitsu) - 48.46 - 3rd, Nationals

36. Daiki Ogawa (Toyo Univ.) - 1255 - 1st, Nationals

38. Ken Toyoda (Toyota) - 1247 - 7th, Heat 1, Nationals

3000 mSC (36 / 8:15.00 / 1212)

*3. Ryuji Miura (Subaru) - 8:03.43 - DNS, Nationals

30. Yutaro Niinae (Aisan Kogyo) - 1229 - 2nd, Nationals

32. Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 1220 - 1st, Nationals

High Jump (36 / 2.33 m / 1156)

10. Ryoichi Akamatsu (Seibu Prince) - 1287 - 2nd, Nationals

11. Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) - 1258 - 1st, Nationals

23. Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex) - 1195 - 3rd, Nationals

Yuto Seko (FAAS) - 1175 - 5th, Nationals

Sota Haraguchi (Juntendo Univ.) - 1169 - 8th, Nationals

Takashi Eto (KDL) - 1163 - 5th, Nationals

Long Jump (36 / 8.27 m / 1192)

24. Keito Yamaura (Katsuura Golf Club) - 1219 - 1st, Nationals

25. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) - 1218 - 4th, Nationals

33. Hibiki Tsuha (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1206 - 5th, Nationals

Riku Ito (Suzuki) - 1191 - 2nd, Nationals

Hammer Throw (36 / 78.20 m / 1162)

27. Shota Fukuda (Sumitomo Denko) - 1187 - 1st, Nationals

Javelin Throw (36 / 85.50 / 1135)

*9. Yuta Sakiyama (Ehime T&F Assoc.) - 87.16 m - 1st, Nationals

14. Roderick Genki Dean (Mizuno) - 1248 - 2nd, Nationals

35. Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - 1137 - 11th, Nationals

Gen Naganuma (Suzuki) - 1136 - 3rd, Nationals

Marathon (100 / 2:06:30 / 1071)

*14. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 2:05:16 - 1st, Fukuoka Int'l 2024

*18. Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:05:39 - 2nd, Osaka 2025

* 44. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 1184 - 3rd, Osaka 2024

20 km Race Walk (50 / 1:19:20 / 1171)

*1. Toshikazu Yamanishi (Aichi Seiko) - 1:16:10 - 1st, Nationals

*2. Satoshi Maruo (Aichi Seiko) - 1:17:24 - 2nd, Nationals

*8. Kento Yoshikawa (Sunbelx) - 1:17:38 - 3rd, Nationals

35 km Race Walk (50 / 2:28:00 / 1119)

*3. Masatora Kawano (Asahi Kasei) - 2:21:47 - 1st, Nationals 2024

*6. Satoshi Maruo (Aichi Seiko) - 2:24:24 - 2nd, Nationals 2025

*7. Hayato Katsuki (SDF Academy) - 2:24:38 - 1st, Nationals 2025

4x100 m Relay (16)

*2. Japan

4x400 m Relay (16)

15. Japan - 2:58.33

Nagoya Asian Games Test Event Canceled After Insulation Falls From Venue Ceiling

A section of insulation material fell from the ceiling of Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena, the official venue for squash competition at September's Nagoya Asian Games. There were no injuries, but the city suspended use of the arena until its safety could be guaranteed, resulting in the cancelation of the Asian Games squash test event which was scheduled to have begun on May 14. It is not yet clear whether the arena will be usable for the Asian Games as planned. According to city officials, arena staff found that the insulation material had fallen onto a work walkway 13 m above the ground on the night of May 11. The fallen material was 3.6 m long, 50 cm wide and 2.5 km thick, and was found to be waterlogged. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it is possible that it was caused by rainwater leaking in from the roof. The same insulation material is installed across the entire ceiling, and the city plans to check for the extent of the possible flooding. Asked whether the arena will be re...

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