Toshikazu Yamanishi at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (© Getty Images)
Two-time defending 20km race walk champion Toshikazu Yamanishi and world javelin bronze medallist Haruka Kitaguchi feature on Japan’s team for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 on 19-27 August.
Yamanishi won his first world gold in Doha in 2019 and retained his title in Oregon. He will be joined by Koki Ikeda, Eiki Takahashi and Yuta Koga in the men’s 20km race walk, which is the opening event of the championships on the morning of 19 August.
Kitaguchi finished third behind Kelsey-Lee Barber and Kara Winger in Oregon last year and goes into this year’s event as the women's world javelin leader thanks to the 67.04m national record she achieved in Silesia last month.
Other athletes on the team include national record-holders Shunsuke Izumiya in the 110m hurdles and Nozomi Tanaka in the 1500m and 5000m, plus Sumire Hata and Hiromichi Yoshida in the long jump.
After Budapest, Japan will host the next edition of the World Championships, in Tokyo in 2025.
Japanese team for Budapest
WOMEN
100m: Arisu Kimishima
200m: Remi Tsuruta
1500m: Yume Goto, Nozomi Tanaka
5000m: Ririka Hironaka, Nozomi Tanaka, Yuma Yamamoto
10,000m: Rino Goshima, Ririka Hironaka
Marathon: Rika Kaseda, Mizuki Matsuda, Sayaka Sato
100m hurdles: Masumi Aoki, Yumi Tanaka, Asuka Terada
400m hurdles: Eri Utsunomiya, Ami Yamamoto
Long jump: Sumire Hata
Triple jump: Mariko Morimoto, Naoko Takashima
Discus: Maki Saito
Javelin: Haruka Kitaguchi, Marina Saito, Momone Ueda
20km race walk: Nanako Fujii, Ayane Yanai, Yukiko Umeno
35km race walk: Masumi Fuchise, Kumiko Okada, Serena Sonoda
MEN
100m: Ryuichiro Sakai, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, Hiroki Yanagita
200m: Shota Iizuka, Koki Ueyama, Towa Uzawa
400m: Yuki Joseph Nakajima, Fuga Sato, Kentaro Sato
5000m: Hyuga Endo, Kazuya Shiojiri
10,000m: Ren Tazawa
Marathon: Kazuya Nishiyama, Kenya Sonota, Ichitaka Yamashita
3000m steeplechase: Ryoma Aoki, Ryuji Miura, Seiya Sunada
Decathlon: Yuma Maruyama
110m hurdles: Shunsuke Izumiya, Shunya Takayama, Taiga Yokochi
400m hurdles: Takayuki Kishimoto, Yusaku Kodama, Kazuki Kurokawa
High jump: Ryoichi Akamatsu, Naoto Hasegawa, Tomohiro Shinno
Pole vault: Tomoya Karasawa
Long jump: Yuki Hashioka, Shotaro Shiroyama, Hiromichi Yoshida
Triple jump: Hikaru Ikehata
Javelin: Roderick Genki Dean, Kenji Ogura, Yuta Sakiyama
20km race walk: Koki Ikeda, Yuta Koga, Eiki Takahashi, Toshikazu Yamanishi
35km race walk: Masatora Kawano, Satoshi Maruo, Tomohiro Noda
4x100m: Shota Iizuka, Yuki Koike, Soshi Mizukubo, Ryuichiro Sakai, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, Hiroki Yanagita
4x400m: Kenki Imaizumi, Ryuki Iwasaki, Naohiro Jinushi, Yuki Joseph Nakajima, Fuga Sato, Kentaro Sato