Skip to main content

Top 5 Finishers at Olympic Trials to Earn Olympic Qualification Regardless of Time

On July 3 the JAAF announced that the IAAF has agreed to grant the top five finishers at Japan's Olympic trials marathon, the Sept. 15 MGC Race, Olympic qualification status. The IAAF had previously set time marks of 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women as the standards necessary for participation in the Olympic marathon, but it will now be possible for the top two finishers at the MGC Race to be named Japan's national representatives regardless of their times.

The Olympic qualifying times need to have been achieved since Jan. 1, 2019. Many of Japan's leading athletes, including men's national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike), have not meet the standards despite having easily cleared them prior to Jan. 1 this year. Due to the expected hot conditions at the MGC Race and the likelihood of a tactical race there were concerns that people may not achieve the standards in the MGC Race itself and as a result would not be able to be confirmed as national representatives. 31 men and 12 women are entered in the MGC Race.

Translator's note: The top two finishers in both the women's and men's races at the MGC Race will be named to the 2020 Olympic team. The 3rd through 5th-place finishers will provisionally be the third member on the team and the two alternates. If anyone runs faster than 2:05:50 or 2:22:23 at one of the six major Japanese marathons during the winter 2019-20 season, the fastest person to do so will pick up the third spot on the Olympic team. In that case the 3rd and 4th-place finishers at the MGC Race will be named alternates and the 5th-place finisher cut.

source article:
https://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20190703/ath19070318510001-n1.html
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Andrew Armiger said…
Makes perfect sense. I haven't seen yet whether it will also be true for the USA OT marathon.

Most-Read This Week

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...

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...

Kawauchi Wins Inaugural Kawauchi Half Marathon

http://www.minyu-net.com/sports/running/FM20160501-070419.php translated by Brett Larner 川内優輝ロード pic.twitter.com/rEJk7CQPFV — みとっぽ (黒) (@mitoppo_tmyk) April 30, 2016 Yuki Kawauchi Road in Kawauchi, Fukushima Held to inspire former residents to return to the area after the nearby TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident five years ago, the village of Kawauchi held the first " Kawauchi no Sato Kaeru Half Marathon - From Reconstruction to Creation " on April 30.  The course started and finished at the village heliport.  1188 runners from across the country gathered to celebrate the village's revival as they ran through its springtime streets. The event's organizing committee was made up of local government and board of education members with support from the Fukushima Minyu Newspaper and other sponsors.  The race's purpose was to transmit the vitality and charm of the reconstructing Kawauchi village to the rest of the nation in hopes of helpin...