Japanese Athletes in Action on Tokyo World Championships Day 2

Sunday marks day 2 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships. Japanese athletes in action:

7:30 - Women's Marathon

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

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

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

Prognosis: Not much chance of getting close to the medals, but any of the Japanese women here could get into the top 8. The 24-year-old Kobayashi has the most headroom, still on an improvement curve in only her 3rd year running marathons.

9:35 - Men's 1500 m Heats

Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 3:36.81 - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: Iizawa made Worlds by winning the Asian title, and with a season best that ranks him 8th from the bottom of the field it's pretty unlikely he'll advance past the heats.

11:05 - Women's 100 m Hurdles Heats

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

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

Yumi Tanaka (Fujitsu) - 12.80 (-0.1) - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: Nakajima and Fukube have a decent chance of advancing to the semi-finals, but Tanaka will need to be close to her best to join them.

18:35 - Men's 400 m Heats

Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) - 44.84 - 5th, Nationals

Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 45.16 - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: Nakajima seems to be back at his best, but Sato's fitness is a bit of a question after the backdoor reversal of his Nationals DQ to get him into the qualifying bracket. Nakajima may move on, but the 4x400 m will probably be their main event.

18:40 - Men's High Jump Qualification

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

Ryoichi Akamatsu (Seibu Prince) - 2.31 m - 2nd, Nationals

Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) - 2.29 m - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: Outside the road events and maybe the men's 100 m this was probably the hardest squad to make on the Japanese team. Seko miraculously hit the standard in mid-August, only the 3rd Japanese man to ever clear 2.33 m and one of only 5 in the Worlds field to hit the qualifying standard, also 2.33. Akamatsu and Shinno are 8th and 11th in the current world rankings, and while Akamatsu has not had a good season since Nationals he and Shinno are still top 8 threats. The big question is whether Seko, whose next-best jump since 2023 was only 2.25 m, can duplicate his one-off qualifying jump.

(19:12 - Women's Discus Throw Final)

Prognosis: It's not likely NR holder Nanaka Kori will make the final.

19:25 - Women's 400 m Heats

Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.14 - 4th, Nationals

Prognosis: Matsumoto was one of the athletes added to the team via Japan's host country rights, and at 4th from the bottom of the field on time this is probably as far as she goes. She'll also be running in the mixed 4x400 m heats the day before.

(20:40 - Women's Long Jump Final)

Prognosis: As with the discus, there's not much chance NR holder Sumire Hata will get to the final.

(20:45 - Men's 100 m Semi-Final)

Prognosis: Abdul Hakim Sani Brown has made three World Championships finals, but after not making it out of the heats at Nationals it all comes down to him having somehow turned around a season where he hasn't broken 10.30. Yoshihide Kiryu and Yuhi Mori both have realistic chances of making the semis, in the 21-year-old Mori's case in his first major international competition.

(21:07 - Women's 1500 m Semi-Final)

Prognosis: NR holder Nozomi Tanaka might make the semi-finals, but Tomoka Kimura probably won't be there with her.

21:30 - Men's 10000 m Final

Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) - 27:17.46 - 2nd, Nationals

Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 27:26.67 - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: 2024 national champ Kasai had some injury issues late spring but seems to be in good shape now. Suzuki beat him to win this year's national title, but as he is just back from training in cold rain at altitude in St. Moritz even his team staff has publicly questioned his readiness to deal with the prolonged heat and humidity in Tokyo. It would take a slow race for either of them to factor into the top 8, but they both have good kicks and could surprise.

(22:20 - Men's 100 m Final)

Prognosis: Can Sani Brown make a World Championships final for the 4th time? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Kiryu has good momentum this season but the final is a stretch.

Ngetich Breaks CR, Murayama and Sasaki Make U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10k

WR holder Agnes Ngetich soloed a fast one at the 54th edition of the Mastercard New York Mini 10k, leading inside the first mile and pulling away the rest of the race to run a 30:07 CR for the win, the fastest time ever on U.S. soil albeit on a slightly net downhill course. On a warm day that saw over 10,000 women finish Tsigie Gebreselama was on her own most of the way too, a distant 2nd in 30:53 and 17 seconds up on past champ Hellen Obiri . Further back, 2026 World University Cross Country bronze medalist Amisa Murayama and 2025 Morinomiyako Ekiden 3rd leg CR breaker Nazuki Sasaki from 2025 National University Women's Ekiden runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University made their U.S. debuts. Murayama was targeting the fastest-ever Japanese time at the Mini, 32:37, but struggled on the hills just before 5 km and late in the race, fading to finish 23rd in 34:08. Sasaki, recovering from a stress reaction in her upper back a few months ago, ran a conservative ...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

National Track and Field Championships Entry List Highlights

Entry lists are out for next week's National Track and Field Championships in Nagoya, the main selection event for Japan's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games and Copenhagen World Road Running Championships. Top entries in each event with best time in 2025-26. Asterisks indicate 2025 national champions. Men Men's 100 m *Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 9.99 Sorato Shimizu (Seiryu H.S.) - 10.00 Yuhi Mori (Watanabe Pipe) - 10.00 Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.06 Fukuto Komuro (Chuo Univ.) - 10.08 Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) - 10.08 Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 Ryota Suzuki (Suzuki) - 10.11 Naoki Inoue (Osaka Gas) - 10.12 Rikuto Higuchi (Suzuki) - 10.12 Men's 200 m Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 20.45 Aoto Suzuki (Sumitomo Denko) - 20.49 Kota Uematsu (Chuo Univ.) - 20.50 Yuji Michael Orisa (GK Line) - 20.51 Soshi Mizukubo (Miyazaki T&F) - 20.51 Mitsuhiro Numata (Legalis) - 20.58 Seisho Sasaki (Iwate Univ.) - 20.60 Sota Miwa (Koizumi) - 20.61 Naoki Uemoto (Lega...

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