Haruka Kitaguchi in action at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix (© Getty Images)
The three women who stood on the javelin podium at last year’s World Championships will take to the runway at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Tokyo on Sunday (19).
The highly popular world champion Haruka Kitaguchi will have the support of the entire stadium in the Japanese capital as she takes on a field that includes Flor Denis Ruiz of Colombia and Mackenzie Little of Australia.
Kitaguchi has won both of her competitions so far this year, throwing a season’s best of 62.97m at the Diamond League meeting in Suzhou where Little and Ruiz finished second and third respectively.
Since then, however, Ruiz won gold at the Ibero-American Championships with a world-leading South American record of 66.70m, so the 33-year-old will head to the Japanese capital full of confidence.
China’s Dai Qianqian, winner at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen, and New Zealand’s Tori Peeters add further depth to the field.
Three other winners of global titles feature in the men’s jumps.
China’s 2022 world champion Wang Jianan takes on 2016 world indoor champion Marquis Dendy in the men’s long jump. Dendy recently got the better of Wang by just one centimetre in Suzhou, so another close competition can be expected in Tokyo.
But in-form Australian champion Chris Mitrevski is unbeaten so far this year and is fresh from an 8.32m PB at the Australian Championships and an 8.24m victory in Osaka. Yuki Hashioka carries Japanese hopes in this event, having jumped a best of 8.28m this year, while Asian champion Lin Yu-Tang of Chinese Taipei is also one to watch.
Korea’s Woo Sanghyeok, the 2022 world indoor champion, highlights the men’s high jump field. So far this year, the 28-year-old has jumped 2.33m indoors and then took bronze at the World Indoor Championships. Last weekend in Doha, he cleared a season’s best of 2.31m.
Australia’s Brandon Starc, USA’s world indoor finalist Vernon Turner, and Japan’s Asian Games bronze medallist Tomohiro Shinno are also in the line-up.
Elsewhere in the field events, Japan’s Ryohei Arai and Genki Dean take on Latvian duo Rolands Strobinders, Patriks Gailums in the men’s javelin.
Highly competitive hurdles
Japanese record-holder Rachid Muratake faces compatriot and Asian champion Shunya Takayama in the men’s 110m hurdles, but Senegal’s Louis Francois Mendy and USA’s Eric Edwards will be trying their best to prevent a victory for the host nation.
Kenya’s Wiseman Mukhobe will have the same aim in the men’s 400m hurdles as he takes on World University Games sprint hurdles champion Ken Toyoda, two-time national champion Kazuki Kurokawa, and Kaito Tsutue, the fastest Japanese athlete this year. Just 0.11 separates the PBs of all four men.
Oceanian record-holder Zoe Hobbs lines up as the fastest woman in the 100m, but many eyes will be on rising Australian talent Torrie Lewis, who upstaged a quality field to win the 200m in Xiamen last month.
Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi and Japan’s Hakim Sani Brown lead the entries for the men’s 100m. Canada’s Brendon Rodney should also feature, in both this event and the 200m, where he takes on Cuban record-holder Reynier Mena.
Japanese record-holder Kentaro Sato and namesake (but no relation) Fuga Sato jumped to first and third respectively on the Japanese all-time 400m list last year. They recently teamed up to secure Japan’s Olympic qualification in the 4x400m at the World Relays in Nassau, but this Sunday’s race will be their first individual 400s of the season.
The focus of the endurance events will likely be fall on the women’s 1500m. Multiple Japanese record-holder Nozomi Tanaka takes on Australian duo Georgia Griffith and Sarah Billings, both of whom set sub-four-minute PBs in Xiamen last month.
In the women’s 5000m, Kenya’s in-form Margaret Akidor takes on Australia’s Rose Davies.
