Kasai, Goto, Kabasawa and Takashima Added to Japan's Olympic Team

With World Athletics' update of its Road to Paris rankings, one male and three female athletes have been added to Japan's team for the Paris Olympics, all in mid/long distance events. Left out are the vertical jumps, with women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota and high jumpers Nagisa Takahashi and Naoto Hasegawa missing by one or two places each.

Men

100 m

Abdul Hakim Sani Brown - 9.97 PB / 9.99 SB

Ryuichiro Sakai - 10.02 PB / 10.10 SB

Akihiro Higashida - 10.10 PB / 10.14 SB

(4x100 m) - Hiroki Yanagita - 10.02 PB / SB

(4x100 m) - Yoshihide Kiryu - 9.98 PB / 10.20 SB

(4x100 m) - Shota Yamamoto - 10.16 PB / SB - alternate

200 m

Towa Uzawa - 20.23 PB / 20.26 SB

Shota Iizuka - 20.11 PB / 20.46 SB

Koki Ueyama - 20.26 PB / 20.47 SB

400 m

Yuki Joseph Nakajima - 45.04 PB / 45.16 SB

Kentaro Sato - 44.77 PB / 45.21 SB

Fuga Sato - 44.88 PB / 45.61 PB

(4x400 m) - Takuho Yoshizu - 45.57 PB / SB

(4x400 m) - Kaito Kawabata - 45.73 PB / 45.77 SB

(4x400 m) - Yudai Nishi - 20.43 PB / SB (200 m) - alternate

10000 m

Tomoki Ota - 27:12.53 PB / 27:20.94 SB

Jun Kasai - 27:17.46 PB / SB

110 mH

Rachid Muratake - 13.04 PB / 13.07 SB

Shunsuke Izumiya - 13.04 PB / 13.17 SB

Shunya Takayama - 13.10 PB / 13.31 SB

400 mH

Ken Toyoda - 47.99 PB / SB

Kaito Tsutsue - 48.58 PB / SB

Daiki Ogawa - 47.80 PB / SB

3000 mSC

Ryuji Miura - 8:09.91 PB / 8:13.96 SB

Ryoma Aoki - 8:20.09 PB / 8:24.21 SB

High Jump

Tomohiro Shinno - 2.31 m PB / 2.27 m SB

Ryoichi Akamatsu - 2.30 m PB / 2.25 m SB

Long Jump

Yuki Hashioka - 8.36 m PB / 8.28 m SB

Javelin Throw

Roderick Genki Dean - 84.28 m PB / 81.38 SB

Marathon

Suguru Osako - 2:05:29 PB / 2:06:13 SB

Naoki Koyama - 2:06:33 PB / SB

Akira Akasaki - 2:09:01 PB / SB

20 km RW

Koki Ikeda - 1:16:51 PB / SB

Ryo Hamanishi - 1:17:42 PB / SB

Yuta Koga - 1:17:47 PB / SB

20 km RW Mixed Relay

Masatora Kawano - 1:17:24 PB / 1:17:59 SB

Kazuki Takahashi - 1:19:01 PB / SB

Kumiko Okada - 1:27:41 PB / 1:29:03 SB

Ayane Yanai - 1:29:44 PB / SB

Women

1500 m

Nozomi Tanaka - 3:59.19 PB / 4:01.44 SB

Yume Goto - 4:09.41 PB / 4:09:93 SB

5000 m

Nozomi Tanaka - 14:29.18 PB / 14:47.69 SB

Yuma Yamamoto - 15:16.71 PB / 15:34.64 SB

Wakana Kabasawa - 15:18.76 PB / 15:20.94 PB

10000 m

Rino Goshima - 30:53.31 PB / SB

Haruka Kokai - 30:57.67 PB / 31:10.53 SB

Yuka Takashima - 30:57.26 PB / 33:33.27 SB

100 mH

Mako Fukube - 12.73 PB / 12.75 SB

Yumi Tanaka - 12.85 PB / SB

Long Jump

Sumire Hata - 6.97 m PB / 6.72 m SB

Triple Jump

Mariko Morimoto - 14.16 m PB / 13.64 m SB

Javelin Throw

Haruka Kitaguchi - 67.38 m PB / 64.28 m SB

Momone Ueda - 61.75 m PB / 61.32 m SB

Marina Saito - 62.37 m PB / 59.70 m SB

Marathon

Honami Maeda - 2:18:59 PB / SB

Yuka Suzuki - 2:24:09 PB / SB

Mao Ichiyama - 2:20:29 PB / 2:24:43 SB

20 Km RW

Nanako Fujii - 1:27:59 PB / SB

Kumiko Okada - 1:27:41 PB / 1:29:03 SB

Ayane Yanai - 1:29:44 PB / SB

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Long Time Coming - Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera's Road to the 2022 United Airlines NYC Half

Back in pre-pandemic days Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera were still in college, Akasaki at Takushoku University and Onodera at Teikyo University . At the 2019 Ageo City Half Marathon they frontran most of the race together, dead set on finishing in the top two Japanese collegiate spots to win invitations to the 2020 United Airlines NYC Half. For Akasaki it had already been a year and a half wait. Inspired by Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 5th place in finish in New York in 2017 and Kei Katanishi 's 7th-place in 2018, Akasaki went for it his junior year in his debut at the 2018 Ageo Half . "Coming up to 10 km I was in the lead pack and feeling good, so I knew I had a shot at going to New York and got pretty excited," he said. But right after the 10 km turnaround point he tripped and fell, and by the time he was back up the lead group was out of range. He finished 20th in 1:03:07, over a minute and a half behind top Japanese university man Ken Nakayama . "I was f...

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...

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