Skip to main content

Japan Announces Team of 65 for Tokyo Olympics

On July 2 the JAAF announced a team of 43 men and 22 women in track and field for the Tokyo Olympics. 

With the men's 4x100 m relay being Japan's best chance of a medal outside the road events, the men's 200 m entries are of particular interest. National champion Yuki Koike, one of only two men to have hit the Olympic qualifying standard, is listed as an alternate, while the other Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, is listed as a stating member despite a DNS at Nationals due to injury concerns after the 100 m. Should Sani Brown scratch and Koike take his place it would open the door for 100 m alternate Yoshihide Kiryu to run if the feeling is that doing the triple would hurt Koike's chances in the relay. 

High schooler Hiroki Yanagida was named as an alternate to the 4x100 m team after a breakthrough 10.22 at last weekend's National Championships. Another one of the breakthrough stars at Nationals, 19-year-old Juntendo University hurdler Rachid Muratake was named alternate in the 110 mH after hitting the standard in the heats only to false start in the final.

A complete breakdown of entries by event:

Men's 100 m / 4x100 mR
Ryota Yamagata - 9.95
Yuki Koike - 9.98
Shuhei Tada - 10.01
alternate and 4x100 mR - Yoshihide Kiryu - 9.98
4x100 mR - Bruno Dede - 10.15
4x100 mR alternate - Hiroki Yanagida - 10.22

Men's 200 m
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown - 20.08
Shota Iizuka - 20.29
Jun Yamashita - 20.40
alternate - Yuki Koike - 20.24

Men's 400 m
Julian Walshi - 45.13

Women's 1500 m
Nozomi Tanaka - 4:08.39
Ran Urabe - 4:10.52

Men's 5000 m
Yuta Bando - 13:18.49
Hiroki Matsueda - 13:24.29

Women's 5000 m
Ririka Hironaka - 14:59.37
Nozomi Tanaka - 15:00.01
Kaede Hagitani - 15:05.78
alternate - Tomoka Kimura - 15:19.99

Men's 10000 m
Akira Aizawa - 27:18.75
Tatsuhiko Ito - 27:2573

Women's 10000 m
HItomi Niiya - 30:20.44
Ririka Hironaka - 31:11.75
Yuka Ando - 31:18.18

Men's 110 mH
Shunsuke Izumiya - 13.06
Taio Kanai - 13.16
Shunya Takayama - 13.25
alternate - Rachid Muratake - 13.28

Women's 100 mH
Masumi Aoki - 12.87
Asuka Terada - 12.87
Ayako Kimura - 13.11

Men's 400 mH
Kazuki Kurokawa - 48.68
Takatoshi Abe - 48.80
Hiromi Yamauchi - 48.84
alternate - Masaki Toyoda - 48.87

Men's 3000 mSC
Ryuji Miura - 8:15.99
Kosei Yamaguchi - 8:19.96
Ryoma Aoki - 8:20.70

Women's 3000 mSC
Yuno Yamanaka - 9:41.84

Men's High Jump
Naoto Tobe - 2.35 m
Takashi Eto - 2.30 m

Men's Pole Vault
Masaki Ejima - 5.71 m
Seito Yamamoto - 5.70 m

Men's Long Jump
Shotaro Shiroyama - 8.40 m
Yuki Hashioka - 8.36 m
Hibiki Tsuha - 8.23 m

Men's Javelin Throw
Takuto Kominami - 82.52 m

Women's Javelin Throw
Haruka Kitaguchi - 66.00 m

Men's 20 km RW
Toshikazu Yamanishi - 1:17:15
Koki Ikeda - 1:17:25
Eiki Takahashi - 1:18:00
alternate - Yuta Koga - 1:18:42

Women's 20 km RW
Kumiko Okada - 1:27:41
Nanako Fujii - 1:28:58
Kaori Kawazoe - 1:31:10

Men's 50 km RW
Masatora Kawano - 3:36:45
Satoshi Maruo - 3:37:39
Hayato Katsuki - 3:42:34
alternate - Kai Kobayashi - 3:43:31

Men's Marathon
Suguru Osako - 2:05:29
Yuma Hattori - 2:07:27
Shogo Nakamura - 2:08:16
alternate - Shohei Otsuka - 2:07:38

Women's Marathon
Mao Ichiyama - 2:20:29
Honami Maeda - 2:23:30
Ayuko Suzuki - 2:29:02
alternate - Mizuki Matsuda - 2:21:47

Women's 4x100 mR
Mei Kodama - 11.46
Yu Ishikawa - 11.48
Hanae Aoyama - 11.56
Ami Saito - 11.61
Remi Tsuruta - 11.80
alternate - Aiko Iki - 11.59

Men's 4x400 mR
Kentaro Sato - 45.61
Kaito Kawabata - 45.75
Rikuya Ito - 45.85
Aoto Suzuki - 45.94
alternate - Kosuke Ikeda - 46.45

© 2021 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Andrew Armiger said…
Any notions as to the form of the marathon team members?
Brett Larner said…
Ichiyama: on
Maeda: so-so
Suzuki: on
alt Matsuda: on

Osako: on
Hattori: so-so
Nakamura: ?
alt Otsuka: so-so
Andrew Armiger said…
Cool, thank you!

I am hopeful Niiya is able to contend for a medal on the track.

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...