Japanese Athletes in Action on Tokyo World Championships Day 3

Day 3 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships kicks off with what will probably be the most-viewed event on domestic TV. A quick look at Japanese athletes competing throughout the day:

7:30 - Men's Marathon

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

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

Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 2:06:33 - 3rd, Osaka 2024

Prognosis: If we had to pick one Japanese athlete we'd most like to see win a medal it's Yoshida, someone who's risen from benchwarmer in college to Fukuoka CR holder. He's been almost invisible this year so it's hard to know where he's at, but if his second half is anything like it was in Fukuoka then he's a contender. Kondo is a wildcard, with a 2:05:39 debut and narrow miss on the win in Osaka this year, but in snow and cold far removed from what Tokyo will be like Monday. Koyama seemed almost no-miss up through his PB in Osaka last year but has struggled since then and controversially made the team here based on points in the domestic marathon series over multiple people who have run a lot better more recently.

9:00 / 10:45 - Men's Hammer Throw Qualification

Shota Fukuda (Sumitomo Denko) - 74.57 m - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: National champ Fukuda is in good shape this season, but even that only ranks him 3rd from the bottom of the field. He's not likely to go on to the final.

9:05 - Women's Pole Vault Qualification

Misaki Morota (At Home) - 4.40 m - DNS, Nationals

Prognosis: Morota has been out of competition for the last few months and didn't compete at Nationals in July, so it was a surprise to see her added to the team on a host country ticket. No indication of what kind of shape she's in, but it's not likely to be near peak form.

10:30 - Women's 3000 m Steeplechase Heats

Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 9:38.16 - 2nd, Nationals

Prognosis: Saito has been having a great season but only made the team off a host country spot. With any luck she'll get pulled along to a PB in the heats, but even that probably won't get her to the final.

19:35 - Men's 400 m Hurdles Heats

Shunta Inoue (Fujitsu) - 48.46 - 3rd, Nationals

Ken Toyoda (Toyota) - 48.55 - 7th, Heat 1, Nationals

Daiki Ogawa (Toyo Univ.) - 48.61 - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: One of Japan's better events. Moving on to the semi-finals would be a good achievement for any of the 3 men on the squad. Toyoda is the biggest question mark after injury issues earlier in the season that saw him eliminated in the heats at Nationals.

19:40 - Men's Long Jump Qualification

Hibiki Tsuha (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 8.15 m (+1.0) - 5th, Nationals

Riku Ito (Suzuki) - 8.11 m (+0.1) - 2nd, Nationals

Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) - 8.10 m (+1.7) - 4th, Nationals

Prognosis: Another good squad, but neither Tsuha nor Hashioka have been close to their best this season. All three are in the bottom half of the field and will need a good day to make the final.

20:23 - Men's 110 m Hurdles Heats

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

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

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

Prognosis: Muratake is a medal contender. Izumiya and Nomoto might join him in the semis, but he's probably going to be the only one in the final.

(21:06 - Women's 100 m Hurdles Semi-Final)

Prognosis: Two of the three Japanese women in the heats, Hitomi Nakajima and Mako Fukube, have a reasonable chance of advancing past the heats to the semis.

(21:30 - Men's 1500 m Semi-Final)

Prognosis: Asian champ Iizawa has a 3:36 season best and will have a hard time making here past the first round.

(21:55 - Men's 3000 m Steeplechase Final)

Prognosis: Miura should be in it for a medal back on the track where he had his big international breakthrough in the heats at the Tokyo Olympics.

(22:20 - Women's 100 m Hurdles Final)

Prognosis: It'd be a surprise to see either Nakajima or Fukube go this far. A pleasant surprise, though.

Kitaguchi Returns, 2 MR, and More - National Championships Day One Highlights

Japan's 110th National Track and Field Championships kicked off Friday at the same stadium that will host September's Asian Games. From an international point of view the biggest result was the return of Paris Olympics women's javelin throw gold medalist Haruka Kitaguchi . After a rough year Kitaguchi threw 62.86 m on her fifth attempt, her best throw since last June's Ostrava Golden Spike meet and enough to give her the win by over a meter. It was still almost 4.5 m short of Kitaguchi's NR, but it was a big step back in the right direction. On the track there were a lot of surprising results on the first day, with multiple meet records, near-misses on MR, and fastest-ever qualifying rounds. The race of the day was the women's 5000 m final, where 4-time national champ and NR holder Nozomi Tanaka tried to make it 5 in a row. With the race going at 15:15-20 pace Tanaka broke away with 4 laps to go, opening a substantial lead over Aichi local Yuma Yamamoto and t...

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...

Goto Drops 2nd-Straight WR - National Championships Day Three Highlights

Just over a month since his 17th birthday, Taiju Goto proved his 48.31 U18 WR in the men's 400 mH heats yesterday wasn't a fluke as he bettered that in the final on the last day of the 110th National Track and Field Championships in Nagoya. Slow in the start, Goto picked up momentum coming up to 200 m before really getting into gear, pulling away from the rest of the field in the last 100 m to win in 48.09, another U18 WR, a new U20 NR, and a run that made him the first high schooler ever to with the Nationals 400 mH. Now only 0.20 off the senior NR, Goto joins the list of Rakunan H.S. talent to be re-writing the record books that includes Yoshihide Kiryu , Ryuji Miura , Keita Sato and Toshinari Takaoka . Another Nationals MR went down, this one in the women's 3000 mSC thanks to NR holder Miu Saito . Having taken 3rd in the 5000 m 2 days ago, Saito started out a little on the conservative side with company from last year's winner Manami Nishiyama in the first 1000 ...

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