Dean Wins First National Title Since 2012 as National Track and Field Championships Wrap Up

The National Track and Field Championships wrapped up Sunday in Osaka with a few more additions to the Oregon World Championships team and a few left to wait another two weeks til the qualification deadline.

The most emotional performance of the day came in the men's javelin throw. Roderick Genki Dean (Mizuno) won the 2012 National Championships and then took 9th in the final at that year's London Olympics while still a student at Waseda University. Injury setbacks meant it took him until 2020 to break 80 m again, and in all those years he never won another national title. Today he threw 81.02 m on his third attempt, beating runner-up Kenji Ogura (Tochigi Sports Assoc.) by 77 cm for the win. 27th of 32 in the quota pre-Nationals, his mark and win all but guarantee that he'll be in Oregon next month. "It was a long time coming," he said in his victory interview.

In the women's 400 mH, Ami Yamamoto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) broke 57 seconds for the first time to beat favorite Eri Utsunomiya (Hasegawa) for the win 56.38 to 56.90. That was enough to put Utsunomiya into the Worlds quota for now, but while Yamamoto fell short of the quota her time put her at all-time Japanese #6 and marked her as a contender for the Paris Olympic team.

In the women's 800 m, Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) took the race out hard and solo with a 1:00 first lap, then hung on in the home straight to win by 0.27 over 1500 m winner Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) in 2:04.24. Her win bumped Shiomi up to 48th of 48 in the quota, but with two weeks still to go there's not much chance she'll survive. Still, though, you don't see many people pull off a race like that, so points for style and hopefully she'll be on the national team next year or the year after.

The men's 800 m didn't have the same kind of frontrunning, two-time runner-up Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) kicking away from a pack of 4 to take the win in 1:47.07. 6 of the 8 finalists were college runners, amateur Yugo Shikata (Takarazuka T&F Assoc.) 4th in 1:47.88 and high schooler Kizuku Ushiroda (Soseikan H.S.) 6th in 1:49.14.

Both having already cleared the 13.32 World standard in the men's 110 mH, Shunzuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) and Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.) just needed to make top 3 in the final for the JAAF to put them on the national team, and that's exactly what they did. Izumiya scored the win in 13.21 (-1.2), with Muratake overcoming a slow start and hitting every hurdle to take 2nd in 13.31. Shuhei Ishikawa (Fujitsu) was 3rd in 13.48.

In the women's 200 m Mei Kodama (Mizuno) came back from a loss in the 100 m to win in 23.34 (+2.6), holding off 100 m winner Arisa Kimishima (DK Shiken) despite tying up in the last 50 m. Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) was 3rd in 23.59.

Yuki Ueyama (Sumitomo Denko) turned in a PB-tying 20.46 (+1.7) for the men's 200 m win, with Tokyo Olympian Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) just pulling off a 2nd-place finish in 20.62. Both are likely to make the 200 m quota, in which case Koike will be the only member of last summer's Olympic 4x100 m to compete in individual events in Oregon. Ryota Suzuki (Suzuki) was 3rd in 20.64, with past Olympian Shota Iizuka (Mizuno), at 30 now the oldest man in the race, 7th in 20.84.

In the women's 5000 m both Tanaka and NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) won Oregon places, Tanaka first across the line in 15:05.61, Kenyan pacer Agnes Mukari (Kyocera) next in 15:08.54 but not counting in the standings, and Hironaka 2nd Japanese in 15:11.08. Half marathoner Rino Goshima (Shiseido) ran a PB 15:13.53 for 3rd, just short of the 15:10.00 Worlds standard, with marathoner Yuka Ando (Wacoal) 4th in a PB 15:18.66 and sub-15 runner Kaede Hagitani (Edion) 5th in 15:23.49. Goshima and Ando will have the chance to go for the standard again in Hokkaido 10 days from now. If both miss, Hagitani will likely be added to the Worlds roster.

On the field, favorite Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) overcame problems with his left ankle to clear the men's long jump Worlds standard and win with a second-round jump of 8.27 m (+1.4). 2nd-placer Hibiki Tsuha (Otsuka Seiyaku) jumped 8.07 m (+2.3) and 3rd-placer Keisuke Matsumoto (Kyukuto Yugyo) a PB 8.07 m (+1.9), the first time 3 Japanese men cleared 8 m at the same Nationals. NR holder Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) couldn't pull out of his slump this season, finishing only 4th at 7.98 m (+1.3) on his final attempt. 30th of 32 in the quota, Hiromichi Yoshida (Kamizaki T&F Assoc.) was only 8th in 7.84 m (+1.0), not helping his chances of joining Hashioka in Eugene.

Nagisa Takahashi (Mason Work) set a new PB of 1.81 m to win the women's high jump on her first attempt, the only woman over 1.80 m. Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex RC) won the women's shot put with a 15.57 m throw on her last attempt to overtake leader Fuyuko Oyamada (Nihon Univ.), whose 2nd attempt of 15.37 m had led up to that point. Hikaru Murakami (NTS Sports) threw a PB 18.29 m to win the men's shot put.

Complete results from all four days of this year's National Track and Field Championships are available here.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved