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

10000 m National Championships Preview

Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

Weekend Track and Road Roundup

The Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon aside, a quick roundup of results from this past weekend: At the Nittai University Time Trials , aka the Nittaidai Challenge Games, Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) led a great men's 10000 m A-heat in 27:20.05, with the top six men all going under 27:28. James Mutuku (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) was the only other collegiate runner among them at 3rd in 27:23.09, with 2:06 marathoner Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) the top Japanese finisher at 8th in 28:23.27. Mutuku's YGU teammate Brian Kipyegon won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:30.88, James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) next in 13:33.67 and Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) 3rd in 13:48.44. Soya Katayama (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest 1500 m with a 3:46.19 to win the A-heat. In the women's races at Nittai, Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was the only one to clear 16 minutes in the 5000 m A-heat, running 15:27.12 for the win. Lucy Nduta (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was likewise the only one u

japan running news

Search This Blog