Japanese Athletes in Action on Tokyo World Championships Day 8

It's getting near the end of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships, and with only one bronze medal so far the host country's chances of the kind of team performance it was hoping for are fading. A look at who's in action on Day 8:

7:30 - Women's 20 km Race Walk

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

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

Ayane Yanai (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:29:44 - 4th, Nationals

Prognosis: Fujii's win at this year's National Championships makes her the fastest woman in the field on SB and 2nd on PB. Okada and Yanai aren't likely to factor into the top 8, but Fujii is a realistic medal contender.

9:00 / 10:35 - Men's Discus Throw Qualification

Masateru Yugami (Toyota) - 64.48 m - 3rd, Nationals

Prognosis: Yugami made it into the Worlds field on a host country slot and is ranked 3rd from its bottom. He's had a decent season, and while there's almost no chance of him making the final a PB in front of a home crowd would be a great showing.

9:50 - Men's 20 km Race Walk

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

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

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

Prognosis: The only man in the field to have broken 1:17, it's Yamanishi's race to lose. Maruo, doubling back from the 35 km, is next on both PB and SB and Yoshikawa 5th, so the chances of at least one medal are looking pretty good. Especially with the unfortunate withdrawal of 35 km gold medalist Evan Dunfee of Canada with injuries he sustained in pushing through the last 10 km of that race.

19:35 - Men's 4x400 m Relay Heats

Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) - 44.44 - 5th, Nationals

Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 45.10 - 1st, Nationals

Kenki Imaizumi (Uchida Yoko AC) - 45.29 - 2nd, Nationals

Sho Tanabe (Chuo Univ.) - 45.39 - 3rd, Nationals

Takuho Yoshizu (Miki House) - 45.40 - 4th, Nationals

Kentaro Sato (Fujitsu) - 45.40 - 4th, H2, Nationals

Shinya Hayashi (Tsukuba Univ.) - 45.65 - 6th, Nationals

Prognosis: The men's 4x400 m has been coming up in recent years, not quite to the level of the 4x100 m but getting there. Nakajima is in great shape with a 44.44 NR in the heats and making the final in the individual race and Fuga Sato running a 45.10 SB in his heat. But without Kentaro Sato in peak form there's a gap in the lineup that may be too big to patch up this time around.

20:25 - Men's 4x100 m Relay Heats

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

Prognosis: The 100 m was a tough squad to make this time, with 3 people running 10.00 PBs behind sub-10 men Sani Brown and Kiryu, so it was a bit disappointing that nobody made the semifinals. It was pretty clear that Sani Brown wasn't in good form in the 100 m, but even without him there are the seeds of a good 4x100 m team between Kiryu, Mori, Yanagita and Shimizu.

21:29 - Women's 5000 m Final

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

Prognosis: A top 8 placing by NR holder Tanaka would be a great showing, with her PB ranking her 9th in the field and her SB 15th.

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 ...

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...

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...

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