Skip to main content

Kitaguchi, Tada and Yamagata Make Tokyo 2020 Team - Japanese Olympic Trials Day Two Results


Three athletes picked up guaranteed spots on the Olympic team in off and on rain on the second day of the National Track and Field Championships and National U20 Track and Field Championships Friday in Osaka. Women's javelin throw national record holder Haruka Kitaguchi scored her place with a 61.49 m final throw for the win, having already broken the Olympic qualifying standard and meeting the JAAF's criterium of a top 3 placing.

That was a tougher job to pull off in the men's 100 m final, where five of the eight men on the starting line had the Olympic standard. The fast-starting Shuhei Tada did his usual thing, out front early with national record holder Ryota Yamagata to his left and the rest of the field just behind. But after years of getting run down in the last 30 m, this time Tada pulled it off. holding his position to win his first national title in 10.15 (+0.2). Yamagata faded and was overtaken by Tokai University's Bruno Dede, who was 2nd in a PB of 10.19. Yamagata held on for 3rd, barely, in 10.27, with the next three runners, Yuki Koike, Yoshihide Kiryu and Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, all within 0.02 of him.

Having the standard, both Tada and Yamagata are now guaranteed for the 100 m at the Olympics. By taking 2nd, Dede complicated the situation as he doesn't have it. Koike is fairly sure to pick up the third spot on the team, higher-ranked than the injured Kiryu and beating him in the final, and both he and Kiryu beating the higher-ranked Sani Brown, who was competing after almost a year and a half away from racing. 

Sani Brown and Koike are the two top-ranked men in the 200 m, but the tougher question will be who makes the final lineup for Japan's 4x100 m relay, heavily expected here to medal. Along with everyone in the 100 m, 200 m specialist Shota Iizuka and Doha World Championships anchor Kirara Shiraishi, who is focusing on the 200 m at Nationals, will also be in the mix. It's not quite at the level of the marathon, but Japanese men's sprinting is at the point where there's more than enough talent to fill available spots, and that's helping drive the level of competition further.

In the women's 1500 m, favorites Nozomi Tanaka and Ran Urabe went 1-2, well short of the Olympic standard at 4:08.39 and 4:10.52 but picking up enough placing points to pretty much guarantee Tanaka a place in the 1500 m quota and give Urabe a chance of hanging on to one of the bottom spots. Not so in the men's 1500 m, but it was an exciting race with a close finish among the top five that saw underdogs Kazuki Kawamura, Keisuke Morita and Shoma Funatsu all dip under 3:40 to take down all the big names including NR holder Nanami Arai. Kawamura took the top position in 3:39.18.


In other finals, Misaki Morota won the women's pole vault, clearing 4.20 m on her second attempt. Yuki Yamashita took the men's triple jump title with a 16.12 (+0.5) jump in the fifth round. Mei Kodama won the women's 100 m for the second year in a row, clocking 11.62 (-1.9). Mayu Kobayashi ran a PB 52.86 to win the women's 400 m, with amateur Kaito Kawabata, a full-time schoolteacher, doing the same in the men's 400 m with a 45.76 for the win.

In U20 races, high schooler Moeka Okawara ran a PB 4:18.65 to win the women's 1500. Another high schooler, Judah Hyodo, replicated that in the men's 1500 m with a 3:47.17 PB to take the U20 national title. Koyuki Nagaishi tied the women's 100 m meet record with a PB of 11.65 (-0.8) for the win, a time that would have put her at 3rd in the senior race.

In qualifying rounds, the main news was women's 100 mH NR co-holder Masumi Aoki scratching late with an injury. In her absence her partner in the NR Asuka Terada had no problem making it through the heats and semis to the final, taking her semifinal in an easy 13.06 (+0.2). Ayako Kimura, the first name on the list outside the Olympic quota, saw her chances of making the Olympic team vanish as she finished only 7th in her semi in 13.47 (+0.2). No surprises came in the men's 400 mH heats, with all four of the men who hold the Olympic standard making the final. Waseda University's Hiromu Yamauchi led the qualifiers in 49.52.

Complete results from Day Two are available here. Day One coverage and replay is here. A preview of Day Three and streaming info is here.

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...
1 comment
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more