National Track and Field Championships Day Two Preview and Streaming

Friday is Day 2 of Japan's National Track and Field Championships at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. Streaming starts at 11:25 a.m. local time and run through 6:30 p.m. before switching over to broadcaster NHK. The daily schedule is here, with start lists here.

On the track the main event is the men's 100 m final. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tumbleweed TC) is the only man in the race to have cleared the 10.05 Oregon World Championships standard with a 10.04 (+0.8) in the semifinals. Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko), Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) and 18-year-old Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) all ran 10.13~10.16 in the semis, and former NR holder Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) made it through in 10.24. Sani Brown will need to make top 3 for the JAAF to pick him for sure, but with any luck we'll see a few others hit the standard in the final to fill up the slots.

The women's 100 m final is close, Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko), Mei Kodama (Mizuno), Arisa Kimishima (DK Shiken) and Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) all within 11.46~11.51 in the semifinals. That's not enough to get them to Oregon, but it should be an exciting race.

Fuga Sato (Nasu Kankyo) is the favorite in the men's 400 m final with a 45.55 in the semis, he and Kaito Kawabata (Chukyo Univ. AC) having a chance of making the World Championships if they run that kind of time and go 1-2. Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) is an even heavier favorite in the women's 400 m final, leading the semis by over a second in 52.74.

The men's 1500 m semifinals were fast, by Japanese standards, anyway, Nanami Arai (Honda) topping the start list with a 3:41.47 and injury-prone Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) right behind in 3:41.49. Nobody has hit the 3:35.00 Worlds standard, NR holder Kazuki Kawamura (Toenec) being closest at 3:35.42, but with most of the big names on the list for the final and looking healthy maybe they'll give it a shot. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) is the only woman in the 1500 m final with the standard, so although she's running poorly this season it shouldn't be an issue for her to make top 3 and get onto the team for Oregon.

On the field, Mayu Nasu (Kagotani) is the favorite in the women's pole vault with a 4.33 m this season. Riku Ito (Kinki Kogyo H.S. Staff) is closest to hitting the 17.14 m men's triple jump standard with a 17.00 m this season, but Yuto Adachi (Fukuoka Univ.) is the highest-ranked at 56th. With the quota standing at 32 there's not much chance he could score enough to move into it.

4 men have thrown over 71 m in the hammer throw, Ryota Kashimura (Yamada Holdings) closest to the 77.50 m standard at 71.50 m but Tatsuto Nakagawa (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) highest in the rankings at 48th. Hitomi Katsuyama (Orico) is the top woman in the hammer throw at 63.05 m, with only 3 others having cleared 60 m.

In qualifying rounds, Kazuki Kurokawa (Hosei Univ.) is the only man to have cleared the 48.90 Worlds standard in the men's 400 mH, but both Masaki Toyoda (Fujitsu) and Takayuki Kishimoto (Fujitsu) are right on the cusp of the 40-deep quota. Takatoshi Abe (Yamada Holdings) has been off his best much of the last year but can't be counted out, and Hiromu Yamauchi (Toho Ginko) has also been up in the top ranks domestically, so expect all of them to be at the top of their semis Friday.

NR holder Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) is in the Worlds quota and should have no problem getting through the women's 100 mH heats and semis in the top position. Mako Fukube (Nikkenko) is in range of the quota and should also be near the top of the final start list at the end of the day, but one notable absence from the start lists in the heats is previous NR holder Asuka Terada (JCG).

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...

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