The day after the national championships, the Japan AAF added thirty-nine athletes to the World Championships team, thus bringing the total team members to forty-nine. Earlier, in March, the Japan AAF announced five men and five women to compete in the marathon team.
However, Shingo Suetsugu, who missed the national championships and Daichi Sawano, who no heighted at the nationals, were not selected this time. A few more athletes, mainly relays members, will be added to the team in mid-July after the Nambu meet. Because Suetsugu and Sawano are standout in their event, they ought to be added to the team, provided of course they can show that they are in form by July.
Sixth World Champs for Murofushi
For Koji Murofushi, reigning Olympic Hammer Throw champion, Helsinki will be his sixth World Championships. Other athletes with previous World Championships experience are: Nobuharu Asahara (1993, 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2003), Satoru Tanigawa (1999 and 2001), Masato Naito (2001 and 2003), Dai Tamesue (2001 and 2003), Yoshitaka Iwamizu (2001 and 2003), Kumiko Ikeda (2001, 2003), Mitsuhiro Sato (2003), Sakie Nobuoka (2001), Miho Sugimori (2001), and Kayoko Fukushi (2003).
Although for twenty-eight athletes, Helsinki will be their first World Championships, many of them already have competed in the international championships. For example, Shinji Takahira, Shin-ichi Terano, Yukifumi Murakami, Mayumi Kawasaki, Takayo Kondo, Yuka Murofushi, and Yuki Nakata competed in the Olympic Games last year.
World Youth and World Junior experience
The team is relatively young. Over half of the team members were born after 1980. Three of them won a medal at the World Youth or Junior Championships. Kenji Narisako was a bronze medalist at 400m Hurdles in the 2001 World Youth Championships, while Takayuki Tanii also won a bronze medal at 10,000m Walk in the 1999 World Youth Championships.
Going back little further Yukifumi Murakami won a bronze medal at the 1998 World Junior Championships. Two other athletes came close to a medal. Yuki Yamazaki was fourth in the 2001 World Youth and fifth in the 2002 World Junior Championships both at 10,000m Walk, while Asami Tanno was sixth at 400m in the 2004 World Junior Championships. And Tanno is making a huge progress this year, having improved her own national record by nearly a second.
Two teenage national champions Shinya Saburi (100m) and Yuzo Kanemaru (400m) have not cleared the “A” standard yet, but they were still selected to run in the relays. Of course if they clear the “A” standard before the deadline they may be running the individual event as well. Kanemaru, incidentally, is the first Japanese high school student to run in the World Championships since 1999, when two high school students, Kiyoharu Sato and Yoshiko Fujinaga ran the 1500m and 5000m respectively.
The selection for men’s 10,000m team may lead to controversy, for Yu Mitsuya who won the nationals but only has “B” standard, was selected over Terukazu Omori, who has the “A” standard but finished second in the nationals. The happy ending is possible if Mitsuya clears the “A” standard in one of the upcoming 10,000m races in the northern island of Hokkaido. In that case Omori may be selected to join Mitsuya on the Helsinki 10,000m team.
Medal ambitions
As for the medal prospect (in an event other than women’s marathon) for the Japanese team, Murofushi, of course, has a best chance in Helsinki, but if he can recapture his best form Dai Tamesue also has a chance for a medal. Other events with a hope for a medal are the men’s relays, event in which Japanese teams finished fourth in both the 4x100m and 4x400m in Athens. If, unlike the last two global championships (2003 Worlds and 2004 Olympics), the training for Helsinki goes well Kayoko Fukushi can surprise some Africans. Fukushi is the 5000m national record holder and the second fastest 10,000m runner in Japan. For many of the athletes, making a final is their main goal in Helsinki.
Because of the nature of the sports, there will always be a surprise or two. One such candidate is Hitomi Miyai, for she is coached by legendary Yoshio Koide, who also coached Naoko Takahashi, Hiromi Suzuki and Yuko Arimori to global championships medals. Miyai, who has been coached by Koide for two years, recorded a national debut 10,000m record, 31:41.60, in April and improved it in the national championships to 31:37.24.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
List of Team members:
(At Nationals/2005 Best/Personal Best)
Men
100m
Shinya Saburi 1st 10.40 10.40 (2005)
Nobuharu Asahara 2nd 10.29 10.02 (2001)
Kazuyoshi Hidaka 3rd 10.29 10.29 (2005)
200m
Shinji Takahira 1st 20.56 20.56 (2005)
400m
Yuzo Kanemaru 1st 45.69 45.69 (2005)
Mitsuhiro Sato 2nd 46.06 45.50 (2003)
Yosuke Inoue 3rd 46.31 46.31 (2005)
1500m
Fumikazu Kobayashi 1st 3:40.15 3:37.42 (2004)
10,000m
Yu Mitsuya 1st 28:09.89 28:00.23 (2004)
3000m Steeplechase
Yoshitaka Iwamizu 1st 8:29.79 8:18.93 (2003)
110m Hurdles
Masato Naito 1st 13.53 13.47 (2003)
Satoru Tanigawa 1st 13.61 13:39 (2004)
400m Hurdles
Dai Tamesue 1st 48.72 47.89 (2001)
Kenji Narisako 2nd 48.71 48.54 (2004)
20Km Walk
Takayuki Tanii 1st 1:21:06 1:20:39 (2004)
Akihiro Sugimoto 2nd 1:22:21 1:21:09 (2004)
Koichiro Morioka 4th 1:22:51 1:22:51 (2005)
50km Walk
Yuki Yamazaki 1st 3:50:39 3:50:39 (2005)
Ken Akashi 3rd 3:59:11 3:54:11 (2003)
LJ
Shin-ichi Terano 1st 7.78m 8.20m (2004)
TJ
Kazuyoshi Ishikawa 1st 16.92m 16.98m (2004)
HT
Koji Murofushi 1st 76.47m 84.86m (2003)
JT
Yukifumi Murakami 1st 79.79m 81.71m (2004)
Women
100m
Tomoko Ishida 1st 11.63 11.45 (2004)
Yuka Sato 3rd 11.70 11.70 (2005)
200m
Sakie Nobuoka 1st 200m, 2nd 100m 23.58/11.49 23.33 (2004)/11.49 (2005)
400m
Asami Tanno 1st 400m, 2nd 200m 51.93/23.87 51.93 (2005)/23.87 (2005)
800m
Miho Sugimori 1st 2:00:45 2:00.45 (2005)
5000m/10,000m
Kayoko Fukushi 1st 5000m, 1st 10000m 15:15.27/31:30.82 14:55.19 (2002)/30:51.81 (2002)
Hiromi Ominami 3rd 10000m 31:35.18 31:35.18 (2005)
Hitomi Miyai 4th 10000m 31:37.24 31:37.24 (2005)
3000mSteeplechase
Minori Hayakari 3000mSC was not contested 9:58.92 9:58.92 (2005)
Walk
Mayumi Kawasaki 1st 1:31:51 1:31:19 (2004)
Shoko Konishi 1st 1:32:21 1:32:21 (2005)
PV
Takayo Kondo 1st 4.10m 4.35m (2004)
LJ
Kumiko Ikeda 1st 6.69m 6.78m (2001)
SP
Yoko Toyonaga 1st 16.69m 17.57m (2004)
HT
Yuka Murofushi 1st 65.38m 67.77m (2004)
Heptathlon
Yuki Nakata 1st 5905 5962 (2004)
