Skip to main content

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships


On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi, 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's.

On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo. The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama, who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Road to Tokyo rankings are enough to get him in. That currently puts him between the 54th and 55th-ranked athletes, so he looks pretty safe, whatever the merits of putting someone who hasn't broken 2:10 in his last two races on the team based on performances in 2023 and early 2024 over the 20 other Japanese men ahead of him in the Road to Tokyo rankings.

In the only moderate surprise, the 2nd Japanese man in Osaka, Kyohei Hosoya, was named alternate over his former Chuo Gakuin University teammate Tsubasa Ichiyama, the top Japanese man in Tokyo. Purely based on numbers Hosoya beat Ichiyama fair and square, 2:05:58 and 4th in Osaka vs. Ichiyama's 2:06:00 and 10th in Tokyo. But Ichiyama ran against a much more competitive field, was faster than Hosoya over the 2nd half of the race, 1:02:44/1:03:16 to Hosoya's 1:02:29/1:03:29, and most importantly ran in hot conditions closer to what it will be like in Tokyo in September than the freezing cold and light snow that Hosoya had in Osaka. It's not hard to see what the JAAF values here.

Women

Sayaka Sato
(30, Sekisui Kagaku)
PB: 2:20:59 - 2nd, Nagoya Women's Marathon 2025
Other Races in Qualifying Window
1:09:03 - PB - 11th, Copenhagen Half Marathon 2024
2:24:43 - 5th, Osaka Int'l Women's Marathon 2024

Yuka Ando
(31, Shimamura)
PB: 2:21:18 - 1st, Nagoya Women's Marathon 2024
Other Races in Qualifying Window
2:23:37 - 11th, Tokyo Marathon 2025

Kana Kobayashi
(23, Otsuka Seiyaku)
PB: 2:21:19 - 2nd, Osaka International Women's Marathon 2025
Other Races in Qualifying Window
2:24:59 - 1st, Hofu Yomiuri Marathon 2024
15:45.68 - PB - Nittai Time Trials, 2024
32:22.98 - PB - Nat'l Corporate Championships 10000 m, 2024
1:14:00 - PB - Hakodate Half Marathon 2024
2:29:44 - 12th, Osaka Int'l Women's Marathon 2024

Yuka Suzuki
(25, Daiichi Seimei) - alternate
PB: 2:21:33 - 3rd, Osaka Int'l Women's Marathon 2025
Other Races in Qualifying Window
2:24:02 - 6th, Paris Olympics 2024


Men

Yuya Yoshida
(27, GMO)
PB: 2:05:16 - 1st, Fukuoka Int'l Marathon 2024
Other Races in Qualifying Window
27:45.85 - PB - HDC Abashiri Meet 10000 m, 2024
13:30.91 - PB - Nittai Time Trials 5000 m, 2024
2:06:37 - 4th, Osaka Marathon 2024

Ryota Kondo
(25, Mitsubishi Juko)
PB: 2:05:39 - 2nd, Osaka Marathon 2025
Other Races in Qualifying Window
13:42.08 - PB - HDC Shibetsu Meet 5000 m, 2024

Naoki Koyama
(28, Honda) - provisional
PB: 2:06:33 - 3rd, Osaka Marathon 2024
Other Races in Qualifying Window
2:10:13 - 35th, Osaka Marathon 2025
2:10:33 - 23rd, Paris Olympics 2024

Kyohei Hosoya
(29, Kurosaki Harima) - alternate
PB: 2:05:58 - 4th, Osaka Marathon 2025
Other Races in Qualifying Window
1:00:43 - PB - Nat'l Corporate Half Marathon 2025
2:07:20 - 6th, Chicago Marathon 2024
2:06:55 - 12th, Tokyo Marathon 2024
2:07:23 - 4th, Fukuoka Int'l Marathon 2023

© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee


Comments

Anonymous said…
While the selections of Yoshida and Kondo are understandable the Naoki Koyama one is the result of a process that could (should) perhaps be different.

Like you guys state in the article he has the accumulated points, yes but the recent results and peak performances just aren't there.

Plus, I feel like selection for the national teams should focus on many different parametres. Like you say how guys run in hot/cold weather, how the course is, form, racing ability.
One could just look at Akasaki running in Paris together with Koyama and how different they were.

It's nothing against Koyama, he does his thing and maybe he surprises us all but my opinion there were a few different routes they could have gone and could end up with a better result.
Even having a youngster trying the experience would have been perhaps better in perspective.
Just my 2 cents

Most-Read This Week

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

10 Meet Records and a National Record at Hyogo Relay Carnival

The grand prix distance events were absent from the program this year at the 73rd Hyogo Relay Carnival , with the top performances in the women's 5000 m and men's 10000 m Asics Challenge races going to steepler Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) in 15:49.48 and Japan-based Kenyan Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) in 28:12.42. But there were a lot of new meet records, and one national record. Ryosuke Kusumi (Shiga) set a T37-class NR of 58.35 m in the para men's 400 m. Kairi Ikeno (Suma Gakuen H.S.) came less than 2 seconds short of a new high school record in the women's 2000 m , beating her own MR from last year by over 3 seconds in 5:55.36, almost 17 seconds ahead of 2nd place. The top 5 all broke or tied the men's high jump meet record, with both Yuto Seko (FAAS) and Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) clearing 2.25 m and Takashi Eto (Kobe Digital Labo), Chao-Hsuan Fu (Taiwan) and Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) clearing 2.20 m. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) won the men...