The JOC has announced a team of 42, 16 women representing 11 universities and 26 men from 13 universities, for track and field competition at next month's 30th anniversary Napoli Universiade. Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.) is the only returning medalist from the 2017 Universiade on the Japanese team, part of last time's gold medal-winning men's 4x100 m lineup. But medal chances are good in the men's and women's half marathons, both areas of traditional strength, in the men's 20 km race walk, where Masatora Kawano (Toyo Univ.) and Koki Ikeda (Toyo Univ.) have the 2nd and 3rd-best times in the world so far this year, the men's long jump, where Yuki Hashioka (Nihon Univ.) is tied for 4th-best in the world, the women's javelin throw, with Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.) throwing 8th-best in the world this season, the men's 400 m hurdles, where Masaki Toyoda (Hosei Univ.) is ranked 18th in the world this season, and the men's pole vault, with Masaki Ejima (Nihon Univ.) ranked 30th. This year's Universiade will be a key competition for next-generation talent hoping to make it onto the Doha World Championships and Tokyo Olympic teams.
30th Universiade - Japanese National Team
Napoli, Italy, July 8 - 13, 2019complete team listing
Women
Sprints
Mai Fukuda (Nittai Univ.)
Mae Hirosawa (Nittai Univ.)
Tomomi Yanagiya (Osaka Seikei Univ.)
Kanako Yuasa (Nittai Univ.)
Middle/Long Distance
Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.)
Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.)
Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.)
Ayano Shiomi (Ritsumeikan Univ.)
Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.)
Yuki Tagawa (Matsuyama Univ.)
Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.)
Yuna Wada (Meijo Univ.)
Jumps
Ayaka Kora (Tsukuba Univ.)
Throws
Haruka Kitaguchi (Nihon Univ.)
Nanaka Kori (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.)
Maki Saito (Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ.)
Men
Sprints
Bruno Dede (Tokai Univ.)
Mitsuki Kawauchi (Kinki Univ.)
Naoki Kitadani (Tokai Univ.)
Daisuke Miyamoto (Toyo Univ.)
Yoshihiro Someya (Chuo Univ.)
Jun Yamashita (Tsukuba Univ.)
Middle/Long Distance
Hiroki Abe (Meiji Univ.)
Akira Aizawa (Toyo Univ.)
Tatsuhiko Ito (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.)
Taisei Nakamura (Komazawa Univ.)
Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyo Univ.)
Ryoji Tatezawa (Tokai Univ.)
Race Walks
Koki Ikeda (Toyo Univ.)
Masatora Kawano (Toyo Univ.)
Yuta Koga (Meiji Univ.)
Hurdles
Kakeru Inoue (Juntendo Univ.)
Shunsuke Izumiya (Juntendo Univ.)
Ryohei Sakaguchi (Tokai Univ.)
Masaki Toyoda (Hosei Univ.)
Jumps
Masaki Ejima (Nihon Univ.)
Yuki Hashioka (Nihon Univ.)
Yusei Takekawa (Hosei Univ.)
Hibiki Tsuha (Toyo Univ.)
Throws
Gen Naganuma (Kokushikan Univ.)
Tatsuya Sakamoto (Osaka Taiiku Univ.)
Decathlon
Yuma Maruyama (Nihon Univ.)
© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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