Skip to main content

Japanese Team Roster for World U20 Championships

by Brett Larner

Japan sends a team of 44 athletes, 14 women and 30 men, to the rebranded World Junior Championships, hereout known as the World U20 Championships, this week in Bydgoszcz, Poland. 2015 World Youth Championships women's javelin throw gold medalist Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.) is Japan's best chance for a medal, the only woman in the field to have thrown over 60 m.  Her teammate Mikako Yamashita (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) looks like another medal contender, her 58.59 m ranking her 3rd in the javelin field.  The team features the current national high school champions in fourteen events, a few including Kitaguchi having made the top three at last month's Japanese National Championships and many ranking in the top ten in their events at World U20.  5th in the men's' 3000 m at last year's World Youth Championships, Hyuga Endo (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) doesn't fit any of those categories, but with new 3000 m and 5000 m bests of 8:01.95 and 13:48.13 since then and a 4th-place finish in the men's 1500 m final at this year's Japanese National Championships he'll be looking to improve on that placing in the men's 5000 m.

World U20 Championships Japanese Team Roster
Bydgoszcz, Poland, July 19-24, 2016
click here for timetable

Women - 14 athletes

Sprints
Haruka Ishizuka (Higashi Osaka Univ.) - 400 m - 53.22
     ・2015 National High School Champion

Long Distance
Wakana Kabasawa (Tokiwa H.S.) - 3000 m - 9:06.47
Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 3000 m - 9:08.15
     ・2nd, 2016 Japanese National Championships women's 1500 m
Rika Kaseda (Narita H.S.) - 5000 m - 15:44.58
Mikuni Yada (Luther Gakuin H.S.) - 5000 m - 15:45.04

Hurdles
Yuri Okubo (Chuo Univ.) - 100 mH - 13.51
Yumi Tanaka (Kansai Gakuin Prep Daiichi H.S.) - 100 mH - 13.74 m
     ・2015 National High School Champion
Haruko Ishizuka (Higashi Osaka Univ.) - 400 mH
     ・3rd, 2016 Japanese National Championships
     ・2015 National High School Champion
Mizuki Murakami (Higashi Osaka Prep Keiai H.S.) - 400 mH - 58.87
Chika Mukai (Meijo Univ.) - 3000 mSC - 10:00.40
     ・2015 National High School Champion, women's 800 m and 1500 m
Yuki Shibata (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) - 3000 mSC - 10:08.92

Race Walks
Yukiho Mizoguchi (Waseda Univ.) - 10000 mRW - 47:03.23
     ・2015 National High School Champion, women's 5000 mRW

Throws
Nanaka Kori (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - shot put - 16.19 m / discus throw - 52.14 m
     ・2nd, 2016 Japanese National Championships women's shot put
     ・2015 National High School Champion, women's shot put and discus throw
Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.) - javelin throw - 61.38 m
     ・3rd, 2016 Japanese National Championships
     ・gold medalist, 2015 World Youth Championships
     ・2015 National High School Champion
Mikako Yamashita (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - javelin throw - 58.59 m

Men - 30 athletes

Sprints
Ippei Takeda (Chuo Univ.) - 100 m - 10.27 / 4x100 mR
Kenta Oshima (Nihon Univ.) - 100 m - 10.29 / 4x100 mR
     ・2014 and 2015 National High School Champion
Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) - 200 m - 20.91 / 4x100 mR
Wataru Inuzuka (Juntendo Univ.) - 200 m - 20.87 / 4x100 mR
Yuki Hashioka (Hachioji H.S.) - 4x100 mR
Kazuki Matsukiyo (Fukuoka Univ.) - 400 m - 46.74 m / 4x400 mR
Naoki Kitadani (Kobe Shiritsu Kagaku Gijutsu H.S.) - 400 m - 46.89 / 4x400 mR
Mizuki Obuchi (Tokai Univ.) - 4x400 mR
Yoshiro Watanabe (Josai Univ.) - 4x400 mR
Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (Nihon Univ.) - 4x400 mR

Middle Distance
Ryohei Sakaguchi (Tokai Univ.) - 1500 m - 3:43.88

Long Distance
Hyuga Endo (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) - 5000 m - 13:48.13
Hiroki Abe (Meiji Univ.) - 5000 m - 13:57.15
Hayato Seki (Tokai Univ.) - 10000 m - 28:48.63
Shota Onizuka (Tokai Univ) - 10000 m - 28:55.26

Hurdles
Takumu Furuya (Waseda Univ.) - 110 mH - 13.67
Pap Denba Hiramatsu (Nihon Univ.) - 110 mH
Yoshiro Watanabe (Josai Univ.) - 400 mH - 49.96
Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (Nihon Univ.) - 400 mH - 50.96
Taisei Ogino (Kanagawa Univ.) - 3000 mSC - 8:44.39

Race Walks
Masatora Kawano (Gotemba Minami H.S.) - 10000 mRW
Ryutaro Yamamoto (Toyama Shogyo H.S.) - 10000 mRW

Jumps
Yuji Hiramatsu (Tsukuba Univ.) - high jump - 2.28 m
Keitaro Fujita (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - high jump - 2.16 m
     ・2015 National High School Champion
Masaki Ejima (Eda H.S.) - pole vault - 5.42 m
Keisuke Okubo (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) - pole vault - 5.20 m
Kazuma Adachi (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) - long jump - 7.76 m
     ・2015 National High School Champion
Yuki Hashioka (Hachioji H.S.) - long jump - 7.70 m
Mutsuki Harada (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - triple jump - 16.16 m

Throws
Shinichi Yukinaga (Shikoku Univ.) - shot put  - 18.41 m / discus throw - 56.65 m
     ・2015 National High School Champion, men's shot put and discus throw
Yume Ando (Tokai Univ.) - discus throw - 58.80 m
Junya Sato (Tokai Univ.) - javelin throw - 77.97 m
Hiroshi Ikegawa (Takigawa Daini H.S.) - javelin throw - 70.03 m

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...