Skip to main content

JAAF Announces Time Standards for Third Spot on Paris Olympic Team

On June 7 the JAAF announced the time standards for the MGC Final Challenge, the battle to pick up the third spot on the men's and women's marathon teams for the Paris Olympics. To earn the third spot on the team men will have to run 2:05:50 and women 2:21:41 at one of the major domestic Japanese marathons in the winter 2023-24 season.

The other two places on the Olympic team will be given to the top two men and women at the Oct. 15 MGC Race, with the 3rd-placer there given a provisional spot. From December, 2023 through March, 2024 if any athletes run the MGC Final Challenge standard at one of the three races named for men or two for women, the athlete running the furthest under the standard will earn the third spot. If nobody breaks the standard, the 3rd-placer at the MGC Race will be finalized as the third Olympic team member.


Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
For the women's, I have the feeling the 3rd place position will go to whoever wins the Nagoya marathon in March 2024 as the weather conditions should be more favorable for a fast time (vs Tokyo MGC race) and 2:21:41 is definitely attainable. I'd be curious to see who enters the Osaka marathon instead of the Nagoya marathon especially after what happened to Mizuki Matsuda last time round. Surely the best and safest strategy would be to enter the Nagoya marathon. You then would have a good 5 months to recover and get ready for the Olympic marathon in August. Ample time to recover then head into a training camp at altitude. Exciting times ahead and congrats to the organizers for creating so much interest in the qualification process. It's wonderful as an armchair viewer!
June 8, 2023 at 10:24 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...
1 comment
Read more

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more