Skip to main content

JAAF Announces Field of 12 Women and 31 Men for September's 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials



The JAAF held a press conference on June 3 to announce the women's and men's fields for Japan's 2020 Olympic marathon trials, the Sept. 15 MGC Race. Following the announcement last week of the Japanese marathon teams for this year's Doha World Championships the complete entry lists for the MGC Race feature just 12 women and 31 men, of whom at least two will score places on the ultra-prestigious home soil marathon teams for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.


With Daiji Kawai (Toenec) also named alternate for the Doha team the men's list could shrink to 30 if anyone in the Doha lineup gets injured, and there is a good chance that some people won't make it to the starting line. On the women's side nothing has been seen this year of Hanami Sekine, one of two runners from the Japan Post team to make the entry list, since a lackluster run at December's Corporate Women's Time Trials 10000 m. Mizuki Matsuda, also one of two Daihatsu runners on the list, hasn't been herself either since her 5th-place finish in Berlin last fall in 2:22:23.

On the men's side, Fukuoka winner Yuma Hattori (Toyota) missed most of his planned spring season due to surgery on his appendix, his training partner Chihiro Miyawaki has been out of sight since his 2:08:45 in Tokyo last year, and Ryo Kiname (MHPS) has been struggling since running 2:08:08 in the same race as Miyawaki. But regardless of the final start list numbers the MGC Race is going to be exactly what the Japanese public has always wanted to see: all of its top marathoners going head-to-head in an important race. No splitting up the pie between the three traditional qualifying races, just one race with everybody all in.


Well, almost. There is a backdoor option for the third spots on the Olympic teams if someone runs really fast in those traditional races during the 2019-2020 winter season. There's no chance that will happen on the men's side and not much on the women's, so realistically the MGC Race will determine the whole team. And with the IAAF's announcement of the Olympic standards coming well after much of the field had already qualified for the MGC Race there's a little more incentive for them not to let it be too much of a jog fest.

Of the ten men who qualified for the MGC Race under 2:09 only one, Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda), cleared the standard by doing it after Jan. 1 this year. The three top-ranked women all find themselves in the same boat. Yuta Shitara (Honda) will probably clear the 2:11:30 men's standard when he runs Gold Coast next month and there is the chance of doing another marathon next winter for anyone who doesn't have it, but the easiest thing will probably be for people to get it in the MGC Race itself, and that will mean at least a moderately fast-paced race whatever the conditions. Just over three months remain until the big day.

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...
2 comments
Read more

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
53 comments
Read more