Skip to main content

Japanese Athletes in Action on Tokyo World Championships Day 9


This will be easy. Japan closes out its home soil World Athletics Championships with one last race, and one of its traditionally strong ones, the men's 4x100 m relay.

21:20 - Men's 4x100 m Relay Final

Prognosis: This is the entry pool:

Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Toray) - 9.96 (+0.5) - 4th, Heat 7, Nationals
Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 9.99 (+1.5) - 1st, Nationals
Yuhi Mori (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 10.00 (+1.3) - 7th, Nationals
Hiroki Yanagita (Toyo Univ.) - 10.00 (+0.3) - DQ, Nationals
Sorato Shimizu (Seiryo H.S.) - 10.00 (+1.7) - 4th, SF3, Nationals
Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.08 (+0.3) - 5th, Nationals
Naoki Inoue (Waseda Univ.) - 10.12 (+0.4) - 4th, Nationals
Naoki Okami (Aomori Pref. Gov't) 10.17 (+0.9) - 2nd, Nationals
Towa Uzawa (JAL) - 20.11 (+0.9) - 1st, Nationals

In the individual 100 m Sani Brown confirmed that he wasn't anywhere close to peak form, and he was left off the 4x100 m team in the relay heats. The lineup there, Koike, Yanagita, Kiryu and Uzawa, ran a 38.07 for 3rd in their heat to make the final, lucking out a bit in South Africa and Great Britain both self-eliminating from the same heat, and a little more with Jamaica not making it out of the other heat. Koike was arguably the weak link on the team on paper, but he still ran well enough to get the job done. The question is what lineup changes might happen to try to get the extra bit they'll need to move up 2 places in the final.

text and photo © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree they need to find something extra for a medal though the Jamaica being out helps a lot. And in the final you never knows who misses an exchange.

That said, I'm not sure what they could do. If I'm allowed, I'll give some exemples with the splits.
I don't know how reliable the single splits are but it seems like Kiryu was one of the worst of the 3rd section and Yanagita was ok but a bit too slower than the medal contenders. Uzawa had the best 4th section (ok Lyles and Thompson weren't there but that's not the point), Koike had an average first section.

Compared to their SB at the world relay, the big difference is that Uzawa ran the third section there, 9,19 vs 9.50 ran today by Kyriu. Sani Brown ran a much slower than Koike (10.54 vs 10.38)while Atago and Inoue ran pretty much the same that today Yanagita and Uzawa today.

That said, I have no idea what they practiced and if they are open to change (I doubt it) but what I'd notice is: Uzawa ran 9.19 at the Worlds and that was an elite time. You don't swap someone running the third section with that split out, it's a difference maker towards the field (beside US and Jamaica).

I'd say you could make a case to put Uzawa in 3rd, keep Koike or push Kiryu in first, keep Yanagita in second and put Inoue back in the 4th.
The outsider could be Shimizu since he runs both 100&200, they could try and make a 3rd&4th section with him and Uzawa, whatever order they like (If I have someone running the 3rd section as good as Uzawa I'm leaving it there).

I doubt there will be changes, they likely will go with a more risky approach at the exchange points and take it from there but i think anaylising data the changes I suggested could make sense, if they ever prepared for a similar scenario. Though from what I read pre world championship is they were dead set on Kiryu 3rd and Uzawa 4th. If they want to go down that route again they need a perfect start from Koike something more from Yanagita (don't think he has that vs elite runners), at least 0.15 better from Kiryu and better last 20 meters from Uzawa with perfect exchanges.
It's a lot to ask but the relay is unpredictable, I hope they pull something great off as my national team (Italy)is out.
September 21, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Hayashi Morozumi Steps Down as Tokai Head Coach

Hayashi Morozumi , 59, has stepped down as head coach at Tokai University following its 12th-place finish at this year's 102nd Hakone Ekiden. Morozumi will serve in an executive advisory role to Noriaki Nishide , 51, who moves up from the Tokai coaching staff to take on head coach duties. Morozumi came to at his alma mater Tokai in 2011 after serving at head coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. , where the team won the 2008 National High School Ekiden anchored by future marathon NR holder Suguru Osako . In 2019 Morozumi led Tokai to its first-ever Hakone title, making him the only coach to win both the biggest high school and college titles in his career. When Morozumi became head coach at Saku Chosei in 1995 he personally drove a bulldozer to build a cross-country loop at the school, combining his innovative coaching theory with deep passion to build the Saku Chosei program from zero to national championships in just 13 years. Along with Osako, now 34, some of his key proteges ...
Post a Comment
Read more

JAAF Announces Marathon Teams for Nagoya Asian Games

On Mar. 25 the JAAF announced Japan's marathon team lineups for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) and Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) make up the men's team, with Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) and Mikuni Yada (Edion) representing Japan in the women's marathon. Each country can field up to 2 men and 2 women per marathon team at the Asian Games. The top-ranked male and female athletes in the 2025-26 MGC Series rankings were given first priority, with the second slots going to people with high-level performances in the 2025-26 MGC Series. Yoshida ran 2:05:16 to win the 2024 Fukuoka International Marathon, and at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon ran an excellent 2:06:59 to take the top Japanese spot in the race and in the MGC rankings. After having run the Tokyo World Championships marathon last fall this will be his second-straight marathon national team in a major international championships. Yamashita ran 2:06:18 at February's Osak...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nomoto's NR Leads Japanese Results at World Indoor Championships

3 Japanese women and 7 men competed at this weekend's World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland, and out of those 5 made their finals. NR holder Nozomi Tanaka was in the 3000 m final, where she was 13th of 14 finishers in 9:07.77 in a race where it took 8:58.18 to get into the medals. Neither Mako Fukube nor Chisato Kiyoyama made the women's 60 mH final, 100 mH NR holder Fukube making the semifinals where she was 7th in SF3 in 8.06 but Kiyoyama eliminated in the first-round heats with an 8.15 for 7th in H5. Fukube was actually faster in the heats, tying her PB with an 8.02 in H6 to move on to the semis. On the men's side, Shusei Nomoto came in hot in the 60 mH, tying his PB of 7.57 to make the semis and then running a 7.49 NR for 3rd in SF3 to make the final on time. There he ran 7.49 again, 0.06 out of the medals in 6th. Teammate Ryota Fujii ran 7.81 for 6th in his opening round heat and didn't make the semifinals. Allon Tatsunami Clay was a...
Post a Comment
Read more