Japan's Team for Nagoya Asian Games

The JOC announced the full lineups for the men's and women's teams for September's Nagoya Asian Games. Being hosted in Japan the Asian Games are a pretty big deal, and it's pretty close to the maximum of 2 athletes per event. The men's and women's triple jump, the women's 400 m and the women's discus throw only have 1 athlete on the Japanese team, and it's a big FU to the shot putters apparently as nobody was named to either the men's or women's teams even though people ranked lower in the World Athletics Asian rankings than top JPN shot putters Daichi Morishita and Chiharu Saka did make the team in other events.

But, let's focus on what it is, not what it isn't. Going off this week's Asian rankings 8 men and 5 women are ranked #1 in their event, with a total of 19 men and 14 women ranked in the top 3. Factor in a limit of 2 per nationality and the relays and Japan's chances of scoring a great medal haul are looking good. Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori is set to double in the 1500 m and 5000 m, with Abigail Fuka Ido doubling in the women's 100 m and 200 m and Nozomi Tanaka setting up for a 1500 m - 5000 m - 10000 m triple. Sumitomo Denko is the most-represented corporate team with 7 men and 3 women, and 8 college students and even 1 high schooler, 400 m hurdler Taiju Goto, were named to the team.

A few of the people on the list don't seem likely to actually make it to Nagoya, especially men's high jumper Ryoichi Akamatsu, who hasn't competed since last October, and men's 5000 m runner Tomonori Yamaguchi, who missed Nationals last month with a stress fracture, but given Japan's depth in those events there should be good alternates available. The team lineups as announced, with current Asian ranking and best performances in 2025-2026:

Men

100 m

7 - Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.06 (+1.4)

8 - Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko) - 10.10 (+1.4)

200 m

1 - Towa Uzawa (JAL) - 20.11 (+0.9)

3 - Soshi Mizukubo (Miyazaki Sports Assoc.) - 20.07 (+0.5)

400 m

1 - Joseph Nakajima (Fujitsu) - 44.44

5 - Shinya Hayashi (Tsukuba Univ.) - 44.98

800 m

2 - Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:43.45

14 - Nanaki Manno (Kansai Univ.) - 1:45.31

1500 m

1 - Kazuto Iizawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 3:35.90

unranked - Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 3:36.53

5000 m

3 - Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 13:14.18

unranked - Tomonori Yamaguchi (SG Holdings) - 13:16.38

10000 m

2 - Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota) - 27:05.92

3 - Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) - 27:21.45

Marathon

20 - Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 2:06:59

41 - Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:06:18

110 mH

1 - Rachid Muratake (JAL) - 12.92 (+0.6)

2 - Shunsuke Izumiya (Sumitomo Denko) - 13.00 (+1.2)

400 mH

3 - Kazuki Kurokawa (Sumitomo Denko) - 48.35

6 - Taiju Goto (Rakunan H.S.) - 48.09

3000 mSC

1 - Ryuji Miura (Subaru) - 8:03.43

4 - Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 8:18.63

Half Marathon Race Walk

1 - Toshikazu Yamanishi (Aichi Seiko) - 1:20:34

3 - Kento Yoshikawa (Fujitsu) - 1:20:50

Marathon Race Walk

1 - Hayato Katsuki (SDF Academy) - 2:55:28

4 - Motofumi Suwa (Aichi Seiko) - 2:58:21

High Jump

8 - Hirokazu Sakai (Senko) - 2.25 m

unranked - Ryoichi Akamatsu (Seibu Prince) - 2.29 m

Pole Vault

9 - Masaki Ejima (Fujitsu) - 5.70 m

11 - Tomoya Karasawa (HNJ Mitsubishi) - 5.66 m

Long Jump

6 - Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) - 8.22 m (+1.9)

13 - Riku Ito (Suzuki) - 8.11 m (+0.1)

Triple Jump

15 - Manato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) - 16.64 m (-1.7)

Discus Throw

2 - Masateru Yugami (Toyota) - 65.38 m

7 - Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) - 61.76 m

Hammer Throw

2 - Tatsuto Nakagawa (Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 73.93 m

3 - Shota Fukuda (Sumitomo Denko) - 74.57 m

Javelin Throw

5 - Yuta Sakiyama (Yamada Holdings) - 87.16 m

16 - Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) - 81.23 m

Decathlon

1 - Yuma Maruyama (Sumitomo Denko) - 8321

6 - Keisuke Okuda (With Us) - 7602

4x100 m Relay

2 - Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) - 9.99 (+1.5)

20 - Fukuto Komuro (Chuo Univ.) - 10.07 (+0.9)

4x400 m Relay

4 - Fuga Sato (Mizuno) - 45.10

18 - Kentaro Shirahata (Toyo Univ.) - 45.30

19 - Kenki Imaizumi (Uchida Yoko AC) - 45.29

Women

100 m

5 - Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.33 (+0.6)

6 - Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 11.35 (+0.5)

200 m

3 - Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 22.79 (+1.0)

11 - Aiko Iki (Osaka Gas) - 23.41 (+1.6)

400 m

3 - Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.14

800 m

3 - Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1:59.52

6 - Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.01

1500 m

3 - Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:04.16

7 - Mizuki Michishita (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:10.48

5000 m

1 - Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 14:34.10

3 - Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 14:59.89

10000 m

1 - Ririka Hironaka (Uniqlo) - 30:56.32

5 - Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 30:54.40

Marathon

1 - Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:20:59

unranked - Mikuni Yada (Edion) - 2:19:57

100 mH

1 - Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 (+0.7)

3 - Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.72 (-0.2)

400 mH

8 - Satsuki Umehara (Sumitomo Denko) - 56.22

11 - Honoka Aoki (Zenrin) - 55.92

3000 mSC

5 - Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 9:24.72

8 - Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 9:40.85

Half Marathon Race Walk

11 - Ayane Yanai (Fujitsu) - 1:35:57

27 - Ayumi Sugibayashi (unattached) - 1:39:43

Marathon Race Walk

2 - Yukiko Umeno (Locok) - 3:33:47

8 - Maika Yagi (Chiba Kogyo Ginko) - 3:36:06

High Jump

9 - Nagisa Takahashi (Senko) - 1.92 m

14 - Yuzuki Ishioka (Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ. AC) - 1.86 m

Pole Vault

2 - Misaki Morota (At Home) - 4.50 m

5 - Akari Osakaya (Ehime Sports Assoc.) - 4.25 m

Long Jump

6 - Sumire Hata (Sumitomo Denko) - 6.47 m (-0.7)

13 - Ayaka Kora (JAL) - 6.48 m (+0.8)

Triple Jump

7 - Akari Funada (Niconiconori) - 13.87 m (+0.4)

Discus Throw

6 - Nanaka Kori (Niconiconori) - 59.23 m

Hammer Throw

9 - Raika Murakami (Zenrin) - 68.83 m

11 - Joy McArthur (USC) - 67.76 m

Javelin Throw

3 - Haruka Kitaguchi (JAL) - 64.63 m

7 - Sae Takemoto (Orico) - 61.74 m

Heptathlon

1 - Yuri Tanaka (Suzuki) - 6050

6 - Nanaka Kajiki (Nojima) - 5693

4x100 m Relay

18 - Manaka Miura (Ehime Sports Assoc.) - 11.42 (+0.5)

22 - Masumi Aoki (77 Ginko) - 11.42 (+1.5)

4x400 m Relay

16 - Shizuho Moriyama (Ichigo) - 53.36

19 - Aoi Teramoto (At Home) - 53.14

26 - Yuzuki Nakao (Sonoda Gakuen Univ.) - 53.20

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

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