Pretty much as expected, last week's Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships, where Japan dominated the medal count, were an easy point grab for a lot of Japanese athletes that boosted their positions in the qualifying quota for August's Budapest World Championships. Which isn't to say that there weren't some great performances, like Sumire Hata's 6.97 m +0.5 m/s women's long jump NR and Kentaro Sato's all-time Japanese #2 45.00 in the 400 m. But for a lot of people, the ACC were a last-minute back door into the rankings.
If you're not familiar with the qualifying system for Worlds, it basically works like this. Each event has a designated number of qualifying spots, in most cases around 40. World-level champions and people who hit qualifying marks automatically make it. The rest of the quota for a given event is filled up in order of athletes' world rankings score, made up of points earned based on performance level, placing, and competition level, with a maximum of three athletes per country. If an athlete's federation doesn't want to send them for whatever reason, that spot rolls down to the next-highest-ranked athlete worldwide.
Basically, if you're not someone who can hit your qualifying mark then the more highly-ranked competitions you are in and the better you do in them, the better your chance of making it. Naturally, this tends to favor European meets and athletes based there or who have the resources to go there, but given who designed the system that's not too surprising. In that sense, good on Asian Athletics for holding its championships right before the July 30 Worlds deadline and giving a chance to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't have had one under this system.
Under the JAAF's selection policy, essentially if you were top 3 at Nationals this year and have the standard then you're going to Budapest. Top 3 and still in the quota at the end of July and you'll also be going. Have the standard and didn't make top 3, in the quota but didn't make top 3, or made top 3 but waiting for a roll down spot, and you'll still be waiting another 2 weeks or so to find out.
Outside Japan's traditional strongholds in the marathon, race walks and relays, as of right now 3 women and 4 men have their standard and finished top 3 at Nationals. Hata's NR jump in Bangkok got her there, Haruka Kitaguchi has been busy winning Diamond League meets, and Nozomi Tanaka got the 5000 m standard earlier this month in Finland. Sato's 400 m win in Bangkok, Shunsuke Izumiya and Shunya Takayama pushing each other in the 110 mH, and 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura's Diamond League success have them at the top of the men's list.
The 10000 m is a little different since it wasn't included in June's Nationals. Ririka Hironaka has the standard, and after injury problems this spring has been demonstrating that she's rounding back into form with progressively better 5000 m runs at the Hokuren Distance Challenge series. Bangkok ACC men's 10000 m winner Ren Tazawa is 3rd in line for a spot to open up in the quota, specifically Australian Tim Vincent's, and with the 2 men in line ahead of him both having injury issues his chances look at least better than even.
4 athletes have the standard but no certain road to Worlds. Mako Fukube is the only Japanese woman with the 100 mH standard, but with a 4th-place finish at Nationals behind 3 women, Asuka Terada, Masumi Aoki, and Yumi Tanaka, who are solidly inside the quota, it's not likely she'll be named. Rachid Muratake has the 110 mH hurdles standard but missed Nationals with injury and hasn't competed since April. Shusei Nomoto fell during the final at Nationals and didn't finish, but 3 weeks later he was back on his feet with a 13.28 +1.1 m/s PB in Tottori to hit the standard dead-on. The problem for him is that Nationals 3rd-placer Taiga Yokochi is in the quota at this point.
Golden Grand Prix winner Hiromichi Yoshida is the only Japanese man with the long jump standard, but at Nationals he jumped only 7.54 m +1.2 m/s for 10th, and in his only competition since then jumped just 7.51 m +0.7 m/s. Only 2 other Japanese men are in the quota and have a realistic chance of staying there, but while there's nothing really stopping the JAAF from sending Yoshida it wouldn't be surprising to see him left off if he's nowhere near peak fitness.
32 other athletes are currently in the quota in their events, a few like 400 m hurdlers Ami Yamamoto and Eri Utsunomiya precariously on the edge but most looking in the pretty comfortable to book your flights now range.
10 more are on the other side of the line, within the first 5 roll-down spots in the quota if anyone ahead of them doesn't compete. Hironaka is currently 1st in line in the 5000 m, as is Kazuki Kurokawa in the men's 400 mH even though he missed Nationals. Maybe the most interesting situation is in the men's 100 m, where Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, 8th at Nationals, is 1st in line and only 1 point behind final quota occupant Yuki Koike, 3rd at Nationals. One more good run from Sani Brown before the end of month would knock Koike out.
National champions Tomoya Karasawa in the men's pole vault Maki Saito in the women's discus throw and Joy McArthur in the women's hammer throw are probably the best examples of people who benefited most from the Asian Athletics Championships, none of them anywhere near it before the ACC but Karasawa breaking into the quota, Saito up to 5th in line and McArthur to 2nd in line after performing well in Bangkok and scoring a load of placing points. Not too much longer now until they find out if there's the payoff they were hoping for.
Women
800 m (1175)
Ayano Shiomi (1167 - 3rd in line) - 3rd, Nationals
1500 m (1143)
Nozomi Tanaka (1248) - 1st, Nationals
Yume Goto (1188) - 2nd, Nationals
5000 m (1151)
Nozomi Tanaka (20th/42 - 14:53.60) - 1st, Nationals
Yuma Yamamoto (1178) - 8th, Nationals
-----
Ririka Hironaka (1151 - 1st in line) - 21st, Nationals
10000 m (1166)
Ririka Hironaka (17th/28 - 30:39.71)
100 mH (1199)
Mako Fukube (19th/40 - 12.73 +1.1 m/s) - 4th, Nationals
Yumi Tanaka (1236) - 3rd, Nationals
Masumi Aoki (1235) - 2nd, Nationals
Asuka Terada (1234) - 1st, Nationals
400 mH (1165)
Ami Yamamoto (1167) - 1st, Nationals
Eri Utsunomiya (1166) - 2nd, Nationals
Long Jump (1174)
Sumire Hata (10th/36 - 6.97 m +0.5 m/s) - 1st, Nationals
Triple Jump (1143)
Mariko Morimoto (1207) - 1st, Nationals
Maoko Takashima (1151) - 2nd, Nationals
Discus Throw (1079)
Maki Saito (1160 - 5th in line) - 1st, Nationals
Hammer Throw (1118)
Joy McArthur (1109 - 2nd in line) - 1st, Nationals
Javelin Throw (1089)
Haruka Kitaguchi (3rd/36 - 67.04 m) - 2nd, Nationals
Marina Saito (1190) - 1st, Nationals
Momone Ueda (1119) - 3rd, Nationals
Yuka Sato (1113) - 5th, Nationals
Mahiro Osa (1112) - 4th, Nationals
Marathon
Mizuki Matsuda (14th/98 - 2:20:52)
Rika Kaseda (16th/98 - 2:21:55)
Sayaka Sato (17th/98 - 2:22:13)
20 kmRW (1098)
Nanako Fujii (17th/50 - 1:29:01)
Kumiko Okada (1158)
Ayane Yanai (1129)
Serena Sonoda (1110)
35 kmRW
Kumiko Okada (9th/50 - 2:44:11)
Serena Sonoda (10th/50 - 2:44:25)
Masumi Fuchise (34th/50 - 2:54:29)
Men
100 m (1200)
Ryuichiro Sakai (1247) - 1st, Nationals
Hiroki Yanagita (1240) - 2nd, Nationals
Yuki Koike (1200) - 3rd, Nationals
-----
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (1199 - 1st in line) - 8th, Nationals
200 m (1182)
Towa Uzawa (1255) - 1st, Nationals
Koki Ueyama (1190) - 7th Nationals
Shota Iizuka (1188) - 5th, Nationals
400 m (1196)
Kentaro Sato (28th/48 - 45.00) - 3rd, Nationals
Yuki Joseph Nakajima (1243) - 1st, Nationals
Fuga Sato (1217) - 2nd, Nationals
5000 m (1182)
Hyuga Endo (1224) - 2nd, Nationals
Kazuya Shiojiri (1208) - 1st, Nationals
-----
Keita Sato (1173 - 4th in line) - 4th, Nationals
10000 m (1216)
Ren Tazawa (1204 - 3rd in line)
110 mH (1192)
Shunsuke Izumiya (6th/40 - 13.04 -0.9 m/s) - 1st, Nationals
Shunya Takayama (10th/40 - 13.10 +0.6 m/s) - 2nd, Nationals
Rachid Muratake (17th/40 - 13.25) +0.3 m/s
Shusei Nomoto (13.28 +1.1 m/s) - DNF, Nationals
Shuhei Ishikawa (1245) - 4th, Nationals
Taiga Yokochi (1217) - 3rd, Nationals
400 mH (1202)
Yusaku Kodama (1254) - 3rd, Nationals
Takayuki Kishimoto (1203) - 8th, Nationals
-----
Kazuki Kurokawa (1199 - 1st in line)
Kaito Tsutsue (1199 - 2nd in line) - 5th, Nationals
Daiki Ogawa (1188 - 5th in line) - 1st, Nationals
3000 mSC (1178)
Ryuji Miura (6th/36 - 8:09.91) - 1st, Nationals
Ryoma Aoki (1212) - 7th, Nationals
Seiya Sunada (1185) - 2nd, Nationals
High Jump (1156)
Ryoichi Akamatsu (1244) - 1st, Nationals
Tomohiro Shinno (1224) - 3rd, Nationals
Naoto Hasegawa (1196) - 2nd, Nationals
Yuto Seko (1171) - 5th, Nationals
Pole Vault (1166)
Tomoya Karasawa (1177) - 1st, Nationals
-----
Seito Yamamoto (1157 - 4th in line) - NM, Nationals
Long Jump (1193)
Hiromichi Yoshida (16th/36 - 8.26 m +1.0 m/s) - 10th, Nationals
Yuki Hashioka (1209) - 2nd, Nationals
Shotaro Shiroyama (1204) - 1st, Nationals
Triple Jump (1142)
Hikaru Ikehata (1161) - 1st, Nationals
Javelin Throw (1126)
Roderick Genki Dean (1248) - 1st, Nationals
Yuta Sakiyama (1157) - 3rd, Nationals
Ryohei Arai (1143) - 2nd, Nationals
Kenji Ogura (1140) - 10th, Nationals
Marathon
Ichitaka Yamashita (16th/99 - 2:05:51)
Kenya Sonota (18th/99 - 2:05:59)
Kazuya Nishiyama (25th/99 - 2:06:45)
20 kmRW
Toshikazu Yamanishi (1st/50 - 1:19:07) - defending champion
Koki Ikeda (5th/50 - 1:18:36)
Eiki Takahashi (10th/50 - 1:19:04)
Yuta Koga (13th/50) - 1:19:19)
35 kmRW
Tomohiro Noda (4th/50 - 2:23:13)
Masatora Kawano (5th/50 - 2:23:15)
Satoshi Maruo (11th/50 - 2:25:49)
4x400 m Relay
Japan (4th/16)
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments