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Japan Announces Beijing World Championships Marathon Teams

by Brett Larner

The JAAF announced its men's and women's Beijing World Championships marathon teams, staying true to its word that members of its hand-picked National Team oversight program would receive priority over non-members who performed better in the official selection races.  Left off the team are Hiroaki Sano (Team Honda) with a 2:09:12 PB for 9th in Tokyo last month, and Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei), winner of November's Yokohama Women's Marathon in 2:26:57.  Those selected for the team:

Women

Sairi Maeda (Team Daihatsu) - age 23
PB/SB: 2:22:48 (Nagoya 2015)

Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) - age 27
PB: 2:23:23 (Osaka Int'l 2012)   SB: 2:26:39 (Osaka Int'l 2015)

Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - age 30
PB/SB: 2:24:42 (Nagoya 2015)

Men

Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) - age 30
PB/SB: 2:07:39 (Tokyo 2015)

Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) - age 33
PB: 2:08:00 (Tokyo 2013)   SB: 2:11:46 (Biwako 2015)

Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) - age 34
PB: 2:08:12 (Biwako 2003)   SB: 2:09:06 (Fukuoka 2014)

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
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Comments

TokyoRacer said…
That's pretty stupid.
March 12, 2015 at 10:20 PM
Anonymous said…
I would be interested to know your thoughts on the selection of Shigetomo over Tanaka, and the so-called "battle" between JAAF and the commentator Masuda.

As always, thanks for all of your informative posts!
March 12, 2015 at 10:45 PM
Brett Larner said…
The time difference was negligible. Tanaka won, while Shigetomo went out over her head and slowed more than 4 minutes off the winner in the second half. Tanaka is coached by one of the only female coaches in Japan, while Shigetomo's head coach is one of the Federation executives in charge of the national marathoning program. Res ipsa loquitur.
March 14, 2015 at 10:01 AM
Anonymous said…
Thank you!
Seems quite dodgy to me.
March 14, 2015 at 10:38 PM
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