More Updates to Japan's Potential Team for Tokyo World Championships

Just a few days left now before the Aug. 24 deadline for qualification for the Tokyo World Championships and the Japanese athletes on the cusp of making the home team are scrambling to find points to make the cut.

The Athlete Night Games meet this past weekend had a big impact, especially in the two toughest squads to make outside the road events, the men's high jump and men's 100 m. 2.27m man Yuto Seko improbably jumped the 2.33m Tokyo standard, knocking last week's big mover Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) off the team. Asian champion Hiroki Yanagita hit the 100 m standard with a 10.00 (+0.3) PB but will almost definitely still be left off the team in favor of Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, 9.96 last summer but not under 10.31 so far this year. Hurdlers Rachid Muratake, Tatsuki Abe (Juntendo Univ.) and Mako Fukube (NKK) all hit their standards, and Towa Uzawa (JAL) and Hibiki Tsuha (Otsuka Seiyaku) both did well enough in the men's 200 m and men's long jump to improve their positions in the Worlds quota.

Other important changes came in the men's 3000 mSC and men's javelin throw. Japan's current #2 man in the steeple, Yutaro Niinae's chances of getting in via a roll down fell as he was bumped down from 1st in line to 2nd. Ryoma Aoki saw his chances fade to almost zero as he dropped to 5th in line. Rin Suzuki also dropped outside the quota in the men's javelin throw and is now 1st in line for a roll down, with National Championships 3rd-placer Gen Naganuma down to 3rd in line and unlikely to make it in Suzuki's place. In the rankings below we've added where people outside the quota stand in line for a roll down spot, the number in parentheses before their names.

What's left? There are a few domestic meets where people like high jumper Hasegawa and sprinter Yuki Koike, 10.08 at the Athlete Night Games, can take a last shot at hitting the standard to get onto the team, but the biggest chances of seeing last-second additions are overseas. At the bronze label Asian Throwing Championships in South Korea Thursday and Friday, women's discus throw NR holder Nanaka Kori, 2nd in line outside the quota, men's discus thrower Masateru Yugami and hammer thrower Tatsuto Nakagawa, both 6th in line in their events, and others will be trying to score enough points to improve their positions. Kori and Nakagawa will then fly to Brazil for the last-chance Grande Premio Brasil de Atletismo meet on the 24th to try to get whatever else they need to do done. But with over a dozen countries timing their national championships this weekend it's pretty hard to gauge exactly what that's going to be.

Women

400 m (48 / 50.75 / 1209)

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(4) Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 1200 - 4th, Nationals

800 m (56 / 1:59.00 / 1197)

43. Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1236 - 1st, Nationals

1500 m (56 / 4:01.50 / 1166)

*28. Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 3:59.69 - 1st, Nationals

49. Tomoka Kimura (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1180 - 2nd, Nationals

5000 m (42 / 14:50.00 / 1182)

*12. Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 14:31.88 - 1st, Nationals

36. Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1202 - 7th, Nationals

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(4) Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 1172 - 2nd, Nationals

10000 m (27 / 30:20.00 / 1218)

12. Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 1263 - 1st, Nationals

19. Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 1241 - 2nd, Nationals

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(1) Rino Goshima (Shiseido) - 1212 - DNS, Nationals

100 mH (40 / 12.73 / 1248)

29. Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 (+0.7) - 2nd, Nationals

31. Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.73 (+1.4) - 3rd, Nationals

32. Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 1281 - 1st, Nationals

3000 mSC (36 / 9:18.00 / 1217)

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(4) Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 1207 - 2nd, Nationals

High Jump (36 / 1.97 m / 1169)

26. Nagisa Takahashi (Senko) - 1193 - 2nd, Nationals

Pole Vault (36 / 4.73 m / 1148)

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(5) Misaki Morota (At Home) - 1127 - DNS, Nationals

Long Jump (36 / 6.86 m / 1172)

35. Sumire Hata (Sumitomo Denko) - 1173 - 3rd, Nationals

Triple Jump (36 / 14.55 m / 1159)

26. Maoko Takashima (Kyudenko) - 1193 - 1st, Nationals

35. Mariko Morimoto (Orico) - 1160 - 3rd, Nationals

Discus Throw (36 / 64.50 / 1105)

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(2) Nanaka Kori (Niigata Albirex) - 1097 - 1st, Nationals

Javelin Throw (36 / 64.00 / 1095)

*1. Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) - wild card - DNS, Nationals

15. Momone Ueda (Zenrin) - 1204 - 1st, Nationals

23. Sae Takemoto (Orico) - 1148 - 3rd, Nationals

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(4) Marina Saito (Suzuki) - 1091 - 2nd, Nationals

Marathon (100 / 2:23:30 / 1035)

*13. Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:20:59 - 2nd, Nagoya 2025

*14. Yuka Ando (Shimamura) - 2:21:18 - 1st, Nagoya 2024

*15. Kana Kobayashi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:21:19 - 2nd, Osaka Women's 2025

20 km Race Walk (50 / 1:29:00 / 1110)

*5. Nanako Fujii (Edion) - 1:26:33 - 1st, Nationals

*19. Kumiko Okada (Fujitsu) - 1:28:17 - 2nd, Nationals

35. Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1166 - 4th, Nationals

Yukiko Umeno (Juntendo Univ.) - 1131 - 3rd, Nationals

35 km Race Walk (50 / 2:48.00 / 929)

*20. Yukiko Umeno (Juntendo Univ.) - 2:46:53 - 1st, Nationals

29. Masumi Fuchise (Kenso) - 1146 - 3rd, Nationals

32. Maika Yagi (Chiba Kogyo Ginko) - 1094 - 4th, Nationals

Yuki Yoshizumi (Funabashi Seikeigeka) - 1090 - 5th, Nationals

Mao Tatsumi (Takoshige) - 1045 - 6th, Nationals

Sayori Matsumoto (Chiba Kogyo Ginko) - 1007 - 7th, Nationals

Men

100 m (48 / 10.00 / 1227)

20. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Toray) - 9.96 (+0.5) - 4th, Heat 7, Nationals

30. Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 9.99 (+1.5) - 1st, Nationals

33. Sorato Shimizu (Seiryo H.S.) - 10.00 (+1.7) - 4th, SF3, Nationals

Yuhi Mori (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 10.00 (+1.3) - 7th, Nationals

Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) - 10.00 (+0.3) - DQ, Heat 6, Nationals

200 m (48 / 20.16 / 1205)

*24. Towa Uzawa (JAL) - 20.11 (+0.9) - 1st, Nationals

28. Soshi Mizukubo (Miyazaki T&F Assoc.) - 20.14 (+0.1) - 7th, SF2, Nationals

44. Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 1208 - 3rd, Nationals

400 m (48 / 44.85 / 1230)

37. Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) - 44.84 - 4th, Nationals

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(1) Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 1226 - DQ, Nationals

800 m (56 / 1:44.50 / 1231)

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(2) Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) - 1210 - 1st, Nationals

1500 m (56 / 3:33.00 / 1225)

55. Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) - Asian Champion - 1st, Nationals

5000 m (42 / 13:01.00 / 1224)

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(5) Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 1214 - 2nd, Nationals

10000 m (27 / 27:00.00 / 1240)

25. Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 1240 - 2nd, Nationals

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(2) Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 1232 - 1st, Nationals

110 mH (40 / 13.27 / 1222)

*3. Rachid Muratake (JAL) - 12.92 (+0.6) - DNS, Nationals

*18. Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) - 13.19 (+0.3) - 1st, Nationals

*Shusei Nomoto (Ehime T&F Assoc.) - 13.21 (+0.6) - 2nd, Nationals

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Tatsuki Abe (Juntendo Univ.) - 13.12 (+0.6) - 3rd, Nationals

400 mH (40 / 48.50 / 1238)

*31. Shunta Inoue (Fujitsu) - 48.46 - 3rd, Nationals

35. Ken Toyoda (Toyota) - 1263 - 7th, Heat 1, Nationals

37. Daiki Ogawa (Toyo Univ.) - 1255 - 1st, Nationals

3000 mSC (36 / 8:15.00 / 1265)

*3. Ryuji Miura (Subaru) - 8:03.43 - DNS, Nationals

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(2) Yutaro Niinae (Aisan Kogyo) - 1229 - 2nd, Nationals

(5) Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 1220 - 1st, Nationals

High Jump (36 / 2.33 m / 1164)

9. Yuto Seko (FAAS) - 2.33 m - 5th, Nationals

11. Ryoichi Akamatsu (Seibu Prince) - 1287 - 2nd, Nationals

12. Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) - 1258 - 1st, Nationals

Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex) - 1224 - 3rd, Nationals

Sota Haraguchi (Juntendo Univ.) - 1169 - 8th, Nationals

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Takashi Eto (KDL) - 1163 - 5th, Nationals

Long Jump (36 / 8.27 m / 1195)

24. Keito Yamaura (Katsuura Golf Club) - 1219 - 1st, Nationals

25. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) - 1218 - 4th, Nationals

33. Hibiki Tsuha (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1209 - 5th, Nationals

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(4) Riku Ito (Suzuki) - 1191 - 2nd, Nationals

Hammer Throw (36 / 78.20 m / 1162)

27. Shota Fukuda (Sumitomo Denko) - 1187 - 1st, Nationals

Javelin Throw (36 / 85.50 / 1139)

*9. Yuta Sakiyama (Ehime T&F Assoc.) - 87.16 m - 1st, Nationals

16. Roderick Genki Dean (Mizuno) - 1248 - 2nd, Nationals

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(1) Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - 1137 - 11th, Nationals

(3) Gen Naganuma (Suzuki) - 1136 - 3rd, Nationals

Marathon (100 / 2:06:30 / 1061)

*14. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 2:05:16 - 1st, Fukuoka Int'l 2024

*18. Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:05:39 - 2nd, Osaka 2025

* 44. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 1184 - 3rd, Osaka 2024

20 km Race Walk (50 / 1:19:20 / 1167)

*1. Toshikazu Yamanishi (Aichi Seiko) - 1:16:10 - 1st, Nationals

*2. Satoshi Maruo (Aichi Seiko) - 1:17:24 - 2nd, Nationals

*8. Kento Yoshikawa (Sunbelx) - 1:17:38 - 3rd, Nationals

35 km Race Walk (50 / 2:28:00 / 1119)

*3. Masatora Kawano (Asahi Kasei) - 2:21:47 - 1st, Nationals 2024

*6. Satoshi Maruo (Aichi Seiko) - 2:24:24 - 2nd, Nationals 2025

*7. Hayato Katsuki (SDF Academy) - 2:24:38 - 1st, Nationals 2025

4x100 m Relay (16)

*2. Japan

4x400 m Relay (16)

15. Japan - 2:58.33

Osako Breaks Marathon NR for 3rd Time - Weekend Roundup

It looked like it was going to be a big weekend, and it delivered. For the 3rd time in his career Suguru Osako broke the men's marathon NR, running 1 second under the standing record to take 4th in the Valencia Marathon in 2:04:55. All the way to 40 km he was steady on 2:58/km, 2:05:10 pace, and like a surprising number of other people in both the men's and women's races, there was a massive jump over the last 2.195 km from his projected finish time to his actual one. His run put Osako back on top of the Japanese charts, put the average of Japan's 10 fastest marathon times of the year under 2:06 for the first time, and got him into the L.A. Olympics marathon trials. Valencia has been trying to get top-tier Japanese athletes to come for years, and now that they finally managed to do it it paid off in a big way. Expect more next year. Back home, former Takushoku University captain Derese Workneh won a 3-way race against Toyota teammates Kazuya Nishiyama and Bedan Ka...

Anonymous said…

In the Women's 1500m even though Yuka Kimura is close to selection I don't think her recent form justifies it. She's had 3 poor races on the trot clocking times of 4:26.35 (13th place, Jerome Classic, Canada, 15 July), 4:18.43 (10th place, Night of Athletics, Belgium, 19 July) and 4:15.18 (1st place, Twilight Games Kanagawa 20th Aug). If I were a selector I'd be more inclined to include Airi Tajima whose most recent performances have been better and improving with 4:12.53 (3rd place, Japan Championships, 6 July) and 4:11.02 (7th place, IFAM Oordegem, Belgium, 9 Aug) and a 3000m race also in Belgium finishing 8:58.79 for 5th place on 16 Aug. It probably is not possible given the points system but putting that aside Airi Tajima is an athlete on the improve.

August 21, 2025 at 6:11 AM

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