Girls’s Javelin Throw – Haruka Kitaguchi
Kitaguchi is the 2023 world champion and Diamond League closing winner and the one girl within the area over 67 meters within the Paris qualifying window. She’s been extra constant this season than within the lead-up to Budapest final yr but in addition hasn’t had a very huge throw. Final yr she went in to the World Championships with a 67.04 m in mid-July. This yr she’s solely hit 65.21 m, additionally in mid-July, however each Colombia’s Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado and Austrian Victoria Hudson have thrown over 66 m this season. Kitaguchi’s medal chances are high good, but it surely’ll take a peak efficiency for her to stroll away with gold.
Males’s 20 km Race Stroll – Koki Ikeda, Ryo Hamanishi and Yuta Koga
All three Japanese males in Paris are within the prime 8 within the area, the #1-ranked Ikeda being the one particular person below 1:17 with a 1:16:51 for the win in Kobe in February. However in hotter circumstances final summer time in Budapest Koga was twelfth and Ikeda fifteenth. All three Budapest medalists are additionally within the prime 8, gold medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain #4 with a 1:17:32, Sweden’s silver medalist Perseus Karlstrom #5 at 1:17:39, and bronze medalist Caio Bonfim of Brazil #7 at 1:17:44, so it is not going to be a simple day for any of the Japanese males.
Marathon Race Stroll Combined Relay
Japan took silver within the marathon race stroll combined relay at this yr’s World Athletics Race Strolling Workforce Championships. Yesterday each Kumiko Okada and Ayane Yanai introduced they have been pulling out of the person girls’s 20 km to focus totally on the combined relay, so count on them and male teammates Masatora Kawano and Kazuki Takahashi to be in it for a medal. The medals look the identical whether or not they’re in a person occasion or a group occasion.
Males’s 4×100 m Relay
The Japanese males’s 4×100 m relay was 4th at World Relays and has the 4th-best time by a nationwide group this season, 38.07 for the win on the London Diamond League. All three groups forward of them, the usA., Italy and Canada, are below 37.90, however the roster Japan is prone to area is stronger than its World Relays lineup, and with the additional motivation of creating up for a blown first change on dwelling floor on the Tokyo Olympics they have a non-zero probability of moving into the medals once more. South Africa is correct behind them within the rankings with a 38.08 season finest.
Males’s 4×400 m Relay
The Japanese males’s 4×400 m relay has been arising internationally, together with a 4th-place end within the closing on the 2022 Oregon World Championships. Since then Julian Walsh has retired, and massive weapons Kentaro Sato and Fuga Sato have been shaky this season after changing into solely the 2nd and third Japanese males to interrupt 45 seconds final summer time in Budapest. In the event that they’re on, a spot within the closing is practical.
Males’s 110 m Hurdles – Rachid Muratake and Shunsuke Izumiya
Former teammates at Juntendo College, nationwide champion Muratake and nationwide file holder Izumiya have the Sixth and Eighth-best occasions within the area, Muratake with a 13.04 and Izumiya at 13.06. That’ll be a mile from the medals, however even making the ultimate can be a fairly good achievement. Muratake has largely been in higher kind this season, Izumiya skipping final month’s Nationwide Championships and falling on the Monaco Diamond League however coming again with a 13.10 (+1.6) final weekend in Tokyo, his finest time of 2024.
Girls’s Marathon – Honami Maeda
Maeda’s 2:18:59 NR in Osaka in January has her at #9 within the Highway to Paris rankings. But when you have not seen how she did it, you need to go watch. Her second half was in all probability probably the most aggressive working by a Japanese girl within the marathon because the golden days of Takahashi and Noguchi. And she or he set a 30 km NR in old school skinny sneakers on the extraordinarily hilly Ome 30 km course. Can she do it in warmth too? Do not know. However the Paris course appears arrange for unfavourable splits for anybody who’s sensible within the first half, and if Maeda has the identical form of confidence she had in Osaka she may go locations.
Girls’s 5000 m – Nozomi Tanaka
A bit improbably, Tanaka has the Sixth-fastest time within the area along with her 14:29.18 NR final fall. However there is a huge soar from there to Fifth-ranked Ejgayehu Taye‘s 14:18.92. Tanaka was third on the Monaco Diamond League with a 14:40.86 season finest in opposition to a comparatively weak area, however she did present some severe closing pace over the past lap. There’s not quite a lot of probability the Olympic closing can be gradual, however whether it is Tanaka may shock a couple of folks within the final 400 m.
Girls’s Lengthy Leap – Sumire Hata
Hata set the 6.97 m NR final summer time on the Asian Championships, however she did not make the ultimate a month later on the Budapest World Championships and has solely jumped 6.72 m this season, placing her at twenty sixth on this planet in 2024 when restricted to a few per nation. It will take one thing main for her to get by means of the primary spherical.
Males’s Marathon – Naoki Koyama, Akira Akasaki and Suguru Osako
No one actually expects Japanese males to set the world on fireplace in worldwide championship marathons anymore, however it is a nice group, even higher than what that they had in Tokyo three years in the past. Koyama has been all hits, on a regular basis, to this point within the marathon, going from a 2:08:59 debut in Tokyo 2022 to a 2:08:12 PB in Tokyo a yr later to a 2:07:40 PB and CR win 4 months later on the Gold Coast Marathon to a 2:08:57 win on the Olympic marathon trials three months later to a 2:06:33 PB for third in Osaka lower than 4 months after the trials.
Osako has been fairly secure prime ten materials, a bit much less so since getting back from his six month to the day retirement after the Tokyo Olympics. His most up-to-date marathon was a 2:11:44 for thirteenth in Boston the place he was overwhelmed by virtually two minutes by beginner Yuma Mori, however Osako is aware of what he is doing and you may’t guess in opposition to him.
picture © 2024 Oyuntuya Odonsuren, all rights reserved
