Skip to main content

Japan Announces Teams for Budapest World Championships and Riga World Road Running Championships (updated)







Update: 24 hours after announcing its team for the Budapest World Championships, the JAAF announced a list of 5 additional men, 8 additional women, and 1 women's double. The numbers below have been updated to include them.

Two big announcements in the last week from the JAAF of its rosters for this month's Budapest World Championships and next month's Riga World Road Running Championships. 28 women, 48 men and 35 officials make up the Budapest team, with multiple winners from last month's Asian Championships, national record holders, and at least two real medal prospects in women's javelin throw world leader Haruka Kitaguchi and men's 20 km race walk defending champion Toshikazu Yamanishi. Especially on the women's side, a lot of athletes on the cusp of making the quotas for their event didn't get there, but a few did, like Asian 10000 m champ Ren Tazawa, pictured above with coach Hiroaki Oyagi and 1:00:08 half marathoner Tomoki Ota in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Ota is one of the two Japanese men bound for Riga in the half marathon, the other being 1:00:32 runner Ryota Kondo. The World Road Running Championships add a road mile and road 5 km to what was the World Half Marathon Championships, but not a single Japanese woman is entered in the half marathon, and only two are entered in the other two distances versus a total of six men across the three distances. To be fair, Riga conflicts with the Asian Games, October's MGC Olympic marathon trials, and ekiden season, but still. Depth in the women's half marathon in Japan is nowhere near what it is for men given their focus on that distance in college in prep for the Hakone Ekiden, but you'd think they'd still be able to come up with someone, or something a little closer to parity.

Entry rosters for both teams are below.

Japanese National Team, Budapest World Championships

times listed are best within qualifying window

Women

100 m
Arisu Kimishima (DKS) - 11.37

200 m
Remi Tsuruta (Minami Kyushu Family Mart) - 23.27

1500 m
Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 4:06.75
Yume Goto (Uniqlo) - 4:10.79

5000 m
Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 14:53.60
Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:16.71
Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 15:17.30

10000 
Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 30:39.71
Rino Goshima (Shiseido) - 31:22.38

100 mH
Asuka Terada (Japan Create) - 12.86
Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 12.89
Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) - 12.90

400 mH
Ami Yamamoto (Kyudenko) - 56.06
Eri Utsunomiya (Hasegawa TK) - 56.65

Long Jump
Sumire Hata (Shibata Kogyo) - 6.97 m

Triple Jump
Mariko Morimoto (Uchida Kensetsu AC) - 14.16 m
Naoko Takashima (Kyudenko) - 13.82 m

Discus Throw
Maki Saito (Tokai Univ. Grad School) - 56.63 m

Javelin Throw
Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) - 67.04 m
Marina Saito (Suzuki) - 62.07 m
Momone Ueda (Zenrin) - 60.54 m

Marathon
Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) - 2:20:52
Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu) - 2:21:55
Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:22:13

20 kmRW
Nanako Fujii (Edion) - 1:29:01
Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:30:58
Yukiko Umeno (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:33:38

35 kmRW
Kumiko Okada (Fujitsu) - 2:44:11
Serena Sonoda (NTN) - 2:44:25
Masumi Fuchise (Kenso Kogyo) - 2:54:29

Men

100 m
Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) - 10.02
Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.08
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Toray) - 10.09

200 m
Towa Uzawa (Tsukuba Univ.) - 20.23
Koki Ueyama (Sumitomo Denko) - 20.32
Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 20.43

400 m
Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) - 45.00
Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Toyo Univ.) - 45.12
Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 45.13

5000 m
Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 13:19.85
Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) - 13:20.84

10000 m
Ren Tazawa (Toyota) - 27:28.04

110 mH 
Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) - 13.04
Shunya Takayama (Zenrin) - 13.10
Taiga Yokochi (Team SSP) - 13.33

400 mH 
Yusaku Kodama (Nojima T&FC) - 48.77
Kazuki Kurokawa (Hosei Univ.) - 49.03
Takayuki Kishimoto (Fujitsu) - 49.28

3000 mSC 
Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) - 8:09.91
Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 8:21.96
Seiya Sunada (Press Kogyo) - 8:26.36

High Jump 
Ryoichi Akamatsu (AWS) - 2.30 m
Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) - 2.27 m
Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) - 2.25 m

Pole Vault
Tomoya Karasawa (Nittai Univ.) - 5.56 m 

Long Jump 
Hiromichi Yoshida (Kanazaki T&F Assoc.) - 8.26 m
Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) - 8.11 m
Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) - 8.06 m

Triple Jump 
Hikaru Ikehata (Surugadai Univ. AC) - 16.73 m

Javelin Throw
Yuta Sakiyama (Ehime T&F Assoc.) - 83.54 m
Roderick Genki Dean (Mizuno) - 83.15 m
Kenji Ogura (Aijec) - 80.13 m

Decathlon
Yuma Maruyama (Sumitomo Denko) - 7816

Marathon
Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:05:51
Kenya Sonota (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:05:59
Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) - 2:06:45

20 kmRW
Koki Ikeda (Asahi Kasei) - 1:18:36
Eiki Takahashi (Fujitsu) - 1:19:04
Toshikazu Yamanishi (Aichi Seiko) - 1:19:07
Yuta Koga (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:19:19

35 kmRW
Tomohiro Noda (SDF Academy) - 2:23:13
Masatora Kawano (Asahi Kasei) - 2:23:15
Satoshi Maruo (Aichi Seiko) - 2:25:49

4x100 m Relay
Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) - 10.02
Ryuichiro Sakai (Osaka Gas) - 10.08
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Toray) - 10.09
Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.11
Soshi Mizukubo (Daiichi Sakekaika) - 10.20

4x400 m Relay 
Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) - 45.00
Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Toyo Univ.) - 45.12
Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 45.13
Ryuki Iwasaki (Mie Sports Assoc.) - 45.19
Kenki Imaizumi (Tsukuba Univ.) - 45.54
Naohiro Jinushi (Hosei Univ.) - 45.58

Japanese National Team, Riga World Road Running Championships

times listed are PBs

Women

1 Mile
Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 4:19.3

5 km
Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 15:34
Nanami Watanabe (Panasonic) - 16:49

Men

1 Mile
Yusuke Takahashi (Hokkaido Univ. Grad School) - 3:38.69 (track 1500 m)
Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA) - 3:57.43 (indoor track mile)

5 km
Kanta Shimizu (Subaru) - 13:21.18 (track 5000 m)
Yamato Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) - 13:25.87 (track 5000 m)

Half Marathon
Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 1:00:08
Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) - 1:00:32

text and photo © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Stefan said…
I'm really curious to see how Ririka Hironaka performs in the 5000m and 10000m events after her solid comeback from injury. The schedule is good so I'm very much hoping she can have a good meet.

Interesting to see Nozomi Tanaka in the Road Running Championships. This will be a good challenge for her as she usually performs her best on the track.

Most-Read This Week

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...