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.

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...

japan running news

Search This Blog