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.

Nationally-Ranked Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. Withdraws From Region Championships Due to Bear Attacks

5th at last year's National High School Ekiden boys' race, Fukushima's Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. has withdrawn its boys' and girls' team from the Nov. 6 Tohoku Region Ekiden Championships in Fukushima. A school spokesperson commented, "We made this decision based on the likelihood of our students coming into contact with bears in the city when out running in the morning." The Akita Athletics Association had already made an announcement on its website on Oct. 31 that due to the high number of bear encounters within the city of Akita this year , the ekiden would be held on a track instead of as a road race. Organizers said that they are leaving it up to each individual school whether to participate, and that they will accept schools choosing not to participate due to safety concerns. The Gakuho Ishikawa boys and girls both won the Fukushima Prefecture High School Ekiden in October, earning them places at the Tohoku regional meet and December's National High...

Komazawa Back On Top With 17th National University Ekiden Title

#3-ranked Komazawa University came on strong over the second half of the National University Ekiden to take a record 17th national title, more than any other program in the national championship race's 57-year history. It had its share of dominant single-stage runs, but more than that this year's Komazawa lineup was consistent across the board, the only school to put all 8 of its runners into the top 5 on their stages, all but 2 of them in the top 3. Over the first 2 legs it was never more than 3 seconds out of 1st, moving up into that position by 1 seconds on the 3rd leg with a good run from 4th-year Yudai Kiyama . 3rd-year Kaisei Yasuhara was the weakest link with only the 5th-best time on the 4th leg, dropping Komazawa back to 4th and 35 seconds behind #2-ranked Chuo University 's Daichi Shibata . But on the next leg Komazawa 4th-year Aoi Ito turned it back around with the biggest run at this year's Nationals, running 35:01 for the 12.4 km 5th leg, 17 seconds unde...

Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Elite Field

Everything in Japanese marathoning is already about qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's trials race for the L.A. Olympics. Scheduled the same day as the Fukuoka International Marathon, the Dec. 7 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon counts the same weight as Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka in men's qualification, with trials spots up to be had by the first 6 Japanese men under 2:09:00 and the first Japanese woman under 2:27:00. The only real contender to do that among the women is Mizuki Nishimura , running her first marathon off a 1:41:42 CR at the Kumanichi 30k in February. Given the Tenmaya corporate team's track record of success in the marathon, including the current women's NR of 2:18:59, her chances are pretty good. Ayumi Morita ran a 2:31:38 PB in Tokyo last year, but it's a big jump for her to get down to 2:26 and it'll mostly be a question of whether Nishimura executes the same way she did at Kumanichi. For men there are 6 under 2:09:00 in the last 3 years, with Ryoma T...

japan running news

Search This Blog