Skip to main content

National Track and Field Championships Day Three Preview and Streaming


The National Track and Field Championships head into their back half Saturday in Osaka. Streaming starts at 10:15 a.m. local time and NHK's TV broadcast at 3:30 p.m., with the daily schedule here, start lists here, and live results here.

On the track, the last race of the day is its biggest, the men's 3000 mSC featuring NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.). A top 8 placer at the Olympics last year while still in his teens, Miura also fell in a race last year, got up, and still won in NR time. Without something spectacular happening there's almost no chance he won't win or at the very least make the Oregon team. His fellow Olympic team members Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) and Ryoma Aoki (Honda) are both in the 45-deep quota at this point, Yamaguchi at 38th and Aoki at 40th, but with things too close to be safe they'll be going for the standard here. Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) is 42nd in the quota, and beating any of the three ahead of him would give him an outside chance of making it through if the quota doesn't fill in the next two weeks.

The top 3 women in the steeple, Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko), Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.) and Yukari Ishizawa (Hitachi), are currently ranked 49th, 50th and 51st and will need big runs to have a chance of getting into the quota.

The men's 400 mH final has all three contenders for the World Championships team, Kazuki Kurokawa (Hosei Univ.), Masaki Toyoda (Fujitsu) and Takayuki Kishimoto (Fujitsu). Kurokawa is the favorite for the national title and the only one with the Worlds standard, but with both Toyoda and Kishimoto on the edge of making the 40-deep quota there's a chance Japan could produce a full squad.

100 mH NR holder Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) is inside the quota, and with the fastest times in the heats and semis it's pretty likely she'll be Oregon-bound. The main question is whether Mako Fukube (NK Kogyo) can score enough points here to join her. 2nd-fastest woman Hitomi Shimura (Shizuoka T&F Assoc.) looks to be too far down the rankings to have a shot at Worlds but should still make top 3 here.

Three men in the pole vault have qualifying marks of 5.70 m, Kosei Takekawa (Marumoto Sangyo) Seito Yamamoto (Toyota) and Takuma Ishikawa (Tokyo Tokai), but of them Yamamoto is the only one in or near the quota at 30th of 32. Masaki Ejima (Fujitsu) is just outside at 33rd, and good performances from him and Yamamoto could send both to Oregon.

Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu AC) is the favorite in the women's triple jump at 13.56 m, but Maoko Takashima (Kyudenko) is close behind at 13.48 m and should be in position to apply pressure on Morimoto.

The women's javelin throw is the only senior throw event of the day, starring NR holder Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) and featuring current Worlds quota occupants Momone Ueda (Zenrin) and Sae Takemoto (Saga Sports Assoc.). As such it's one of the few other events where Japan has a shot at sending a complete roster of 3.

In qualifying rounds, two-time national champ Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tumbleweed TC) is giving the men's 200 m a miss, leaving Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) the favorite to make the Oregon team as the only Japanese man currently in the quota. But the great Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) is fastest in the Nationals qualifying window at 20.34, and with both Wataru Inuzuka (Suzuki) and Kotaro Ito (Tokyo Gas) both faster than Koike's 20.46 too a top 3 placing from Koike is not a sure thing. Women's 100 m runner-up Mei Kodama (Mizuno) leads the 200 m heats starting list at 23.46, but winner Arisa Kimishima (DK Shiken) and others are close behind.

It's not likely anyone in the men's or women's 800 m will be in Oregon, Mikuto Kaneko (Chuo Univ.) the top-ranked man at 1:45.85 and 63rd in the rankings and Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) the best woman at 2:02.36 and 59th. Kaneko is closer to the standard at 0.65 sec off, but it would take a national record for him to get it.

The 110 mH heats feature another athlete coming to Nationals with the Worlds standard, NR holder Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) having run 13.28 (-0.2) at the Olympics last summer. Olympic alternate Rachid Muratake (Juntendo Univ.) is currently 35th in the 40-deep quota and could survive, with Shusei Nomoto (Ehime T&F Assoc.) and Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) both in range of it if they run up to potential and make the final.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nagoya Asian Games Test Event Canceled After Insulation Falls From Venue Ceiling

A section of insulation material fell from the ceiling of Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena, the official venue for squash competition at September's Nagoya Asian Games. There were no injuries, but the city suspended use of the arena until its safety could be guaranteed, resulting in the cancelation of the Asian Games squash test event which was scheduled to have begun on May 14. It is not yet clear whether the arena will be usable for the Asian Games as planned. According to city officials, arena staff found that the insulation material had fallen onto a work walkway 13 m above the ground on the night of May 11. The fallen material was 3.6 m long, 50 cm wide and 2.5 km thick, and was found to be waterlogged. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it is possible that it was caused by rainwater leaking in from the roof. The same insulation material is installed across the entire ceiling, and the city plans to check for the extent of the possible flooding. Asked whether the arena will be re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more