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JAAF Announces Marathon Teams for 2023 World Championships and Asian Games

The JAAF has announced the men's and women's marathon teams for this year's Budapest World Championships and Hangzhou Asian Games. Japan's MGC Race Paris Olympics marathon trials are scheduled for Oct. 15. With Budapest happening Aug. 19-27 everyone on the Budapest team will have to either double high-level marathon performances seven weeks apart or try to steal the 3rd spot on the Paris team by running a fast time at one of the major winter 2023-24 domestic marathons. With Hangzhou happening Sept. 23 to Oct. 5 it's not likely anyone named to that team will try to double, meaning either a shot at something ambitious next winter or giving Paris a miss.

Between the two teams, the two fastest Japanese men at both the Osaka Marathon and Tokyo Marathon this year have been chosen. Heading to Budapest are Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko), 2:05:51 for 7th in Tokyo, Kenya Sonota (JR Higashi Nihon), 2:05:59 for 8th in Tokyo, and Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota), 2:06:45 for 6th in Osaka. 

Hangzhou-bound are Yohei Ikeda (Kao), 2:06:53 for 7th in Osaka, and Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko), 2:07:24 for 10th in Osaka. Sadakata was the 4th Japanese man in Osaka, meaning the 3rd men there, Shohei Otsuka (Kyudenko), 8th in 2:06:57, and in Tokyo, Suguru Osako (GMO), 9th in 2:06:13, both passed on the chance to run in Hangzhou.

On the women's side, Japan's top finisher at last summer's Oregon World Championships Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) leads the Budapest team with a 2:21:44 for 6th and top Japanese in Tokyo. Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu) and Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) were chosen off strong performances at last year's Berlin Marathon, where Kaseda was the top Japanese woman at 7th overall in 2:21:55 and Sato 3rd Japanese in 2:22:13 for 9th. 

Things go further down the list for the women's team in Hangzhou. Hikari Onishi (Japan Post) was named off a 2:25:54 for 19th and 5th Japanese woman in Berlin, with Mirai Waku (Universal Entertainment) picking up the second spot thanks to a 2:25:58 for 7th overall and 5th Japanese at the Nagoya Women's Marathon earlier this month.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Stefan said…
I'm surprised Mizuki Matsuda is running here as I fully expected her to put all her focus on making the Olympic Team after she missed out last time. She ran a good solid race in the World Championships last year so I'm genuinely surprised at this decision.

Regarding Sayaka Sato I think it is a wonderful opportunity for her and an honor to finally make the national team so I can understand her decision to run.

I'm a little surprised with Rika Kaseda running too because I think she is on a definite performance improvement trajectory recently and has a realistically good chance of running a great race at MGC and qualifying for the Olympics. I'm not sure how she will do given the limited recovery after this race and then build up to the MGC race.

Mao Uesugi not competing certainly gives her a better chance of doing well in the MGC race as she probably discovered from her own back to back marathon experiment experience from earlier this year.

One thing for sure is the MGC race is going to be very closely contested and you will need to be on top of your game to come out in the top 2-3.
March 29, 2023 at 8:02 AM
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