Skip to main content

Tanimoto and Futaoka to Lead Japanese Marathon Team for Doha World Championships

The JAAF announced the lineups today for the Japanese women's and men's marathon teams for this fall's Doha World Championships. Having scheduled Japan's new MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials event for two weeks before the World Championships the JAAF has specified that nobody can double, meaning that, including alternates, three of the four women and all four men named would have to give up a chance at being part of the Tokyo Olympics in order to get a guaranteed spot on a lesser national team.

That means a team drawn from the middle and lower end of the list of trials qualifiers, a good mix of relatively inexperienced younger athletes likely to develop further for the 2024 Paris Olympics, mid-career runners without much chance of making the top few spots at the trials, and aging veterans who've shrewdly sussed out that being on a national team is better for their brands than going for a higher-level one they know they can't make. It's a B-team to be sure, but given the depth in Japanese marathoning it's still one that almost any country except Ethiopia and Kenya would have a hard time matching.

Looking at performances within the MGC Race qualifying window, midsummer 2017 through the end of April this year, the top-ranked members of the Doha women's and men's teams are their youngest, Mizuki Tanimoto and Kohei Futaoka. Tanimoto, 24, ran 2:25:28 for 11th in Nagoya in March in just her third marathon, a performance that ranked her 9th among the fifteen women to qualify for the trials. Her corporate team Tenmaya has the best track record for putting people on national teams, and with two of its other runners with better PBs also qualified for the trials Tenmaya is opting for Doha for Tanimoto.

Futaoka, 25, ran 2:09:15 for 4th in Beppu-Oita in February in his second serious marathon, ranking him 11th among the 34 men on the trials list.  His corporate sponsor Chudenko is one of the lower-tier corporate teams, and having him make a Worlds team is a major coup for them. Both Tanimoto and Futaoka have shown rapid progression so far, Tanimoto going from 2:35 to 2:31 to 2:25 and Futaoka from 2:13 to 2:09, and no doubt the powers that be are banking on them being contenders for the 2024 Paris Olympic team. The complete Doha team rosters with best performances inside the MGC Race qualifying window:

Women
Mizuki Tanimoto, 24 - 2:25:28, Nagoya Women's Marathon 2019 - 11th
Ayano Ikemitsu, 28 - 2:26:07, Nagoya Women's Marathon 2019 - 12th
Madoka Nakano, 27 - 2:27:39, Osaka International Women's Marathon 2019 - 4th
alternate: Yukari Abe, 27 - 2:28:02, Osaka International Women's Marathon 2019 - 5th (did not qualify for MGC Race)

 Men
Kohei Futaoka, 25 - 2:09:15, Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon 2019 - 4th
Yuki Kawauchi, 32 - 2:09:21 - Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon 2019 - 8th
Hiroki Yamagishi, 27 - 2:10:14 - Tokyo Marathon 2018 - 17th
alternate: Daiji Kawai, 27 - 2:10:50 - Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon 2019 - 11th

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Ngetich Breaks CR, Murayama and Sasaki Make U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10k

WR holder Agnes Ngetich  soloed a fast one at the 54th edition of the Mastercard New York Mini 10k, leading inside the first mile and pulling away the rest of the race to run a 30:07 CR for the win, the fastest time ever on U.S. soil albeit on a slightly net downhill course. On a warm day that saw over 10,000 women finish  Tsigie Gebreselama  was on her own most of the way too, a distant 2nd in 30:53 and 17 seconds up on past champ Hellen Obiri . Further back, 2026 World University Cross Country bronze medalist Amisa Murayama  and 2025 Morinomiyako Ekiden 3rd leg CR breaker Nazuki Sasaki  from 2025 National University Women's Ekiden runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University  made their U.S. debuts. Murayama was targeting the fastest-ever Japanese time at the Mini, 32:37, but struggled on the hills just before 5 km and late in the race, fading to finish 23rd in 34:08. Sasaki, recovering from a stress reaction in her upper back a few months ago, ran a conservative ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more