Lyles set for Tokyo return at Seiko Golden Grand Prix

World and Olympic champion Noah Lyles will return to the Japanese capital to compete at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Tokyo on 17 May.

The US sprinter has fond memories of competing in Tokyo. It’s where he earned his first Olympic medal back in 2021 and where, last year, he won his fourth successive world 200m title and third world 4x100m crown.

The 28-year-old will contest the 100m – the distance at which he won Olympic gold in 2024 – when he returns to Tokyo’s National Stadium in May. His participation follows the confirmation of a strong group of leading Japanese athletes across multiple disciplines.

Olympic javelin champion Haruka Kitaguchi heads the domestic line-up, alongside World Championship finalists Rachid Muratake and Yuki Joseph Nakajima. Muratake set a Japanese 110m hurdles record of 12.92 last year, while Nakajima broke the national 400m record with 44.44.

Japan’s strength in the jumps will also be on show, with World Championships finalist Ryoichi Akamatsu joined by Tomohiro Shinno in the high jump, while Yuki Hashioka competes in the long jump.

Multiple national record-holder Nozomi Tanaka will contest the 3000m, while the men’s 100m is set to feature Yoshihide Kiryu, Hiroki Yanagita, Yuhi Mori and rising talent Sorato Shimizu, who last year set a world U18 best of 10.00.