There was something in the air Sunday at Yamanashi's Fujisan no Meisui Stadium as the 7th edition of the Fuji Hokuroku World Trials meet tuned into a festival of records that changed the situation for Japan's home team at next month's Tokyo World Championships.
At the top of the list, Abigail Fuuka Ido (Toho Ginko) ran 22.79 (+1.0) to take 0.09 off Chisato Fukushima's almost decade-old women's 200 m national record. Both she and 2nd-place Ami Takahashi (Tsukuba Univ.) were under the old meet record, Takahashi in 23.20. Ido still has a way to go to hit the 22.57 Tokyo standard, but having gone from a 23.59 (+0.6) PB last year to a 23.18 (+0.2) PB at Nationals last month to this 22.79 NR, it doesn't seem out of range.
Injured since last year before coming back at Nationals with a 45.81 for 4th in the final, Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) came out of nowhere with a 44.84 PB and MR for the men's 400 m win, just clearing the 44.85 Tokyo standard. Fuga Sato (Mizuno) was 2nd in 45.16 and also clearing the old MR, but it wasn't enough to improve on his precarious 47th of 48 position in the Tokyo rankings. With NR holder Kentaro Sato dealing with injuries since his silver medal at the Asian Championships, Nakajima's sudden return means Japan will have at least one man in the 400 m at Worlds. Now if they can just put together a good 4x400 m team.
The men's 100 m had big results that seriously impacted the potential lineup for the Tokyo team. For just the second time in his career and first since his 9.98 NR way back in 2017, Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) broke 10 with a 9.99 (+1.5) meet record in Heat 2. Having cleared the 10.00 Tokyo standard here, as the winner at Nationals in July Kiryu is a lock for the team. The situation got more complicated in Heat 3, where Yuhi Mori (Daito Bunka Univ.), winner of May's Kanto Regionals D2 race in a massively wind-aided 9.97 (+3.9) and holding a 10.13 (+1.1) PB from the Golden Grand Prix meet a week later, dropped a 10.00 (+1.3) PB to hit the Tokyo standard too. Mori was 7th at Nationals, meaning he's now sure to be named to the team along with Kiryu.
Who will the third man be? Abdul Hakim Sani Brown was the standard with a 9.96 (+0.5) in the Olympics last summer but has only run 10.31 (+1.1) this year and ran Nationals injured, eliminated in his heat when he ran 10.45 (-0.7). 16-year-old Sorato Shimizu (Seiryo H.S.) hit the standard last week with a 10.00 (+1.7) U18 and U20 NR. He made the semi-finals at Nationals. Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) won the Kanto Regionals D1 race in 9.95 (+4.5), ran a 10.06 (+1.1) to win the Golden Grand Prix, took gold at the Asian Championships and bronze at the World University Games, but false started his heat at Nationals and was DQd. The Japanese media seems to think that based on the JAAF's published criteria it'll be Sani Brown and that Yanagita isn't even in the conversation. However it turns out, there's a tough decision ahead for the JAAF, and another one for the 4x100 m relay team where Towa Uzawa is also in the mix with a Tokyo-standard 20.12 (+0.8) for 200 m gold at the Asian Championships.
At any rate, Kiryu, Mori and Heat 1 winner Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko), 10.22 (+1.0) all passed on the final, where qualifiers included NR holder Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) with a 10.18 (+1.5) season best, sub-10 man Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko), 10.22 (+1.0), and Rikuto Higuchi (Suzuki) with a meet record-breaking 10.12 (+1.3). But when heavy rain rolled in the final was cancelled, robbing Yamagata and the others of the chance to get closer to complicating the situation even more.
2010 world U20 men's 200 m gold medalist, Olympic relay silver medalist and World Championships bronze medalist Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) pulled off the improbable in the men's 200 m final with a 20.45 (+1.2) SB for the win, making it 13 years in a row that he's gone under 20.50. As the 3rd placer at Nationals and current 3rd Japanese man in the Tokyo quota Iizuka stands to make the Worlds team if he can better, or at least survive, his current ranking of 42nd of 48.
In other results:
- Mako Fukube (NKK), 3rd in the women's 100 mH at Nationals and currently sitting outside the Tokyo quota, ran a meet record 12.80 (+0.9) to win her heat but passed on the final.
- Haruna Kuboyama (Imamura Byoin) set a women's 400 m MR of 53.08.
- Ami Yamamoto (Fujitsu) and Aisha Ibrahim (Seiyo) both broke the women's 400 mH MR, Yamamoto winning in 56.87 and Ibrahim 2nd in 57.10.
- Five people broke the men's 400 mH MR, with Hiromu Yamauchi (Toho Ginko) getting the win in 48.79.
- Sheriai Tsuda (Tsukiji Gindako) tied the MR in the women's high jump at 1.81 m.
- Akari Funada (Niconiconori) set a new MR in the women's triple jump with a 13.87 m (+0.4) PB on her final attempt.
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
The 100/4x100 situation for men is definitely a challenge for the JAAF and a tough decision to make.
That said, Sani Brown said that now he feels healthy but personally I'd say that he either proves it in the coming 2-3 weeks by running a proper time or there is absolutely zero reason to give him a place in the 100. Bring him as an alternate for the relay is one thing but making him a lock would be wrong.
The thing is that other than Kiryu the others are all young guys that would benefit from the experience of going to the World Championships but to make a proper selection it would take more than one single very good time to choose one over the other.
In that respect Yanagita is the one who has repetead low 10s more times but I don't know what the criteria ends up being.
I would hope/think that these guys are going to run at some othrer meetings sometimes soon and back their good recent form with another good time to give more indications to the team.
Not to forget Inoue and Nishioka also ran well at the 4x100 last may...It's a good problem to have all these athletes in the mix but I think the Japanese selection team should think carefully about adding someone with pedigree but on a bad year rather than someone younger and on fire. The difference will likely make it a medal or not.