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Japanese Athletes in Action on Tokyo World Championships Day 6



A couple of unexpected qualifiers add to the numbers of Japanese athletes in action on day 6 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships.

19:05 - Women's 5000 m Heats
Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 14:31.88 - 1st, Nationals
Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:12.97 - 7th, Nationals
Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 15:05.69 - 2nd, Nationals

Prognosis: NR holder Tanaka should make it through to the final, but the decline in her last kick this season and evident in the 1500 m heats decreases her chances in a slower race. Yamamoto is in the same heat as Tanaka and doesn't have a realistic chance, but Hironaka could get through in the second heat after a great run in the 10000 m.

19:15 - Women's High Jump Qualification
Nagisa Takahashi (Senko) - 1.92 m - 2nd, Nationals

Prognosis: Takahashi was a host country addition to the field and is ranked near its bottom, so it would probably take at least a PB for her to make the final.

19:55 -  Women's 800 m Heats
Rin Kubo (Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S.) - 1:59.52 - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: Still in high school, NR holder Kubo qualified on rankings, not host country privilege. She doesn't really have any experience racing this kind of competition, so it's probably best to chalk this one up as experiential.

21:02 - Men's 200 m Semi-Final
Towa Uzawa (JAL) - 20.11 (+0.9) - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: Uzawa did a good job to make it through the semifinals, but his 20.11 SB ranks him only 6th in his SF. Making the final is a tall order.

21:24 - Women's 200 m Semi-Final
Abigail Fuuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 22.79 (+1.0) - 1st, Nationals

Prognosis: A host country addition to the team, Ido was not expected to make it through the heats but pulled off a great run there to make the semifinals on time. Lightning's not likely to strike twice, but even the SF is a big step for her.

22:10 - Men's 400 m Final
Yuki Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) - 44.44 - 5th, Nationals

Prognosis: With a new NR in the heats and a brilliant last 100 m in the semis Nakajima unexpectedly made the final. There's a great backstory on the lengths the Japanese distributor of Maurten had to go to get bicarb for him the morning of the semis, and given how he closed in that race keep your fingers crossed they got it to him for the final too.

text and photo © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Anonymous said…
Your Women's 5000m prognosis matches my own. I'm guessing Yamamoto will try to stick with Tanaka and try to use her as a pacemaker as she has previously. I'm not sure how easy that will be to do in a high class field. I hope she doesn't go out hard like in the Olympics and lead, only to be swallowed by pretty much the whole field at the business end of the race and run a 15:40 plus time. I'm expecting Tanaka to go through and even go so far as to make the pace if she finds it too slow given her inability to kick away in the last stretch. I think this would be her best option. Hironaka is in good form and I hope she makes it through to the finals. She hasn't run a sub 15min time this season which has me apprehensive but she may be saving her best for an event like this. I have high hopes for her.

With regards to Rin Kubo, I think if she were to progress to the next round she would have done exceptionally well. It won't be easy and I hope she doesn't get burdened too much by the expectations being put on her. She is very young and realistically, the difference in times between her PB and the rest is quite large. I'd be over joyed if she could make it to the next round. It would be a great achievement and memory to do this at a World Championships on home soil.
September 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Anonymous said…
I'm conflicted in my thoughts regarding Yamamoto's run. She ran her race to make the pace for Tanaka for 2600m. One on hand, I say great team play but on the other hand, pace makers usually go to at least 4000m so how much help did she actually provide. Once again she ran a very poor time and placed poorly, very similar to her Olympic experience. Would Kana Mizumoto have run this way if selected? I'm convinced she would have tried to run a PB like Miu Saito did in the 3000m SC. Turning to Hironaka's run, it was a gamble. It didn't pay off. It is hard to be critical of her because she still finished in a respectable placing and with a good time considering her season's best time. The reality is she needs to run regular sub 15 min races to have even a slight chance of advancing these days.

I thought Rin Kubo did well and it should prove a good experience for her.
September 19, 2025 at 5:57 AM
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