Breaking Down The Potential Japanese Team in Paris

We're into the last month of qualifying for the Paris Olympics, with the final deadline in most events falling on June 30. With Japan's trials coming at its National Championships June 27-30, a quick look at who is and could be on the Olympic team if they make the top 3 there, relays teams excluded. Breakdown is by people with standard, people currently in their event quota, and people within shooting distance of the quota. We'll update weekly through the end of June.

Men

100 m (10.00)

Abdul Hakim Sani Brown - 9.97 (+0.3) - standard

Hiroki Yanagita - 1259 (28/56 in quota)

Shuhei Tada - 1229 (38/56 in quota)

Akihiro Higashida - 1222 (in quota)

Yoshihide Kiryu - 1205 (in quota)

Ryo Wada - 1194 (in quota)

200 m (20.16)

Towa Uzawa - 1271 (26/48 in quota)

Shota Iizuka - 1207 (35/48 in quota)

Koki Ueyama - 1202 (37/48 in quota)

Yudai Nishi - 1183 (48/48 in quota)

400 m (45.00)

Kentaro Sato - 44.77 - standard

Fuga Sato - 44.88 - standard

Yuki Joseph Nakajima - 1248 (39/48 in quota)

800 m (1:44.70)

none

1500 m (3:33.50)

none

5000 m (13:05.00)

Kazuya Shiojiri - 1161 (51/42 in quota)

Hyuga Endo - 1157 (53/42 in quota)

Keita Sato - 1151 (56/42 in quota)

10000 m (27:00.00)

Tomoki Ota - 1249 (25/27 in quota)

Jun Kasai - 1232 (27/27 in quota)

Akira Aizawa - 1228 (29/27 in quota)

Men's 110 mH (13.27)

Rachid Muratake - 13.04 (-0.9) - standard

Shunsuke Izumiya - 13.06 (+1.3) - standard

Shusei Nomoto - 13.20 (+0.9) - standard

Shunya Takayama - 1280 (in quota)

Taiga Yokochi - 1216 (in quota)

Men's 400 mH (48.70)

Ken Toyoda - 48.36 - standard

Kazuki Kurokawa - 48.58 - standard

Kaito Tsutsue - 48.58 - standard

Yusaku Kodama - 1237 (in quota)

Haruto Deguchi - 1223 (in quota)

Men's 3000 mSC (8:15.00)

Ryuji Miura - 8:13.70 - standard

Ryoma Aoki - 1245 (24/36 in quota)

Seiya Sunada - 1177 (37/36 in quota)

Men's High Jump (2.33 m)

Ryoichi Akamatsu - 1261 (10/32 in quota)

Tomohiro Shinno - 1232 (16/32 in quota)

Yuto Seko - 1186 (25/32 in quota)

Naoto Hasegawa - 1184 (in quota)

Men's Pole Vault (5.82 m)

none

Men's Long Jump (8.27 m)

Yuki Hashioka - 8.28 m (+1.4) - standard

Yuto Toriumi - 1182 (34/32 in quota)

Men's Triple Jump (17.22 m)

Hikaru Ikehata - 1147 (40/32 in quota)

Men's Shot Put (21.50 m)

none

Men's Discus Throw (67.20 m)

none

Men's Hammer Throw (78.20 m)

Shota Fukuda - 1140 (40/32 in quota)

Men's Javelin Throw (85.50 m)

Roderick Genki Dean - 1243 (12/32 in quota)

Yuta Sakiyama - 1140 (34/32 in quota)

Ryohei Arai - 11:40 (35/32 in quota)

Men's Marathon (2:08:10)

Suguru Osako - 2:06:13

Naoki Koyama - 2:06:33

Akira Akasaki - 2:09:01

Men's 20 km RW (1:20:10)

Koki Ikeda - 1:16:51

Ryo Hamanishi - 1:17:42

Yuta Koga - 1:17:42

Men's Decathlon (8460)

Yuma Maruyama - 1185 (29/24 in quota)

Women

100 m (11.07)

none

200 m (22.57)

Remi Tsuruta - 1152 (57/48 in quota)

400 m (50.95)

none

800 m (1:59.30)

none

1500 m (4:02.50)

Nozomi Tanaka - 1234 (30/45 in quota)

Yume Goto - 1176 (49/45 in quota)

Tomoka Kimura - 1159 (57/45 in quota)

5000 m (14:52.00)

Nozomi Tanaka - 14:29.18 - standard

Yuma Yamamoto - 1187 (30/42 in quota)

Ririka Hironaka - 1172 (34/42 in quota)

Wakana Kabasawa - 1160 (in quota)

10000 m (30:40.00)

Ririka Hironaka - 1286 (24/27 in quota)

Rino Goshima - 1246 (26/27 in quota)

Haruka Kokai - 1236 (27/27 in quota)

Women's 100 mH (12.77)

Yumi Tanaka - 1233 (33/40 in quota)

Asuka Terada - 1212 (40/40 in quota)

Mako Fukube - 1207 (42/40 in quota)

Women's 400 mH (54.85)

none

Women's 3000 mSC (9:23.00)

none

Women's High Jump (1.97 m)

Nagisa Takahashi - 1151 (35/32 in quota)

Women's Pole Vault (4.73 m)

Misaki Morota - 1137 (37/32 in quota)

Women's Long Jump (6.86 m)

Sumire Hata - 6.97 m (+0.5) - standard

Women's Triple Jump (14.55 m)

Mariko Morimoto - 1189 (18/32 in quota)

Maoko Takashima - 1135 (42/32 in quota)

Women's Shot Put (18.80 m)

none

Women's Discus Throw (64.50 m)

none

Women's Hammer Throw (74.00 m)

Joy McArthur - 1105 (42/32 in quota)

Women's Javelin Throw (64.00 m)

Haruka Kitaguchi - 67.38 m - standard

Marina Saito - 1168 (16/32 in quota)

Momone Ueda - 1151 (23/32 in quota)

Yuka Sato - 1128 (in quota)

Women's Marathon (2:26:50)

Honami Maeda - 2:18:59

Yuka Suzuki - 2:24:09

Mao Ichiyama - 2:24:43

Women's 20 Km RW (1:29:20)

Nanako Fujii - 1:27:59 - standard

Kumiko Okada - 1:29:03 - standard

Ayane Yanai - 1170 (34/48 in quota)

Women's Heptathlon (6480)

none

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...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...

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...

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