Ryuji Miura races at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix (© Getty Images)
Ryuji Miura, Nozomi Tanaka and Mako Fukube are among the first athletes announced for the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, this year’s fourth World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Yokohama, Japan, on 21 May.
Japanese 3000m steeplechase record-holder Miura claimed victory at last year’s Seiko Golden Grand Prix and went on to compete at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon and then finish fourth in the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich.
Multiple national record-holder Tanaka, who raced in the 800m, 1500m and 5000m in Oregon, has been busy already this year and competed indoors in the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Boston before racing at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 23. She started her Continental Tour season at the Gold event opener in Melbourne, finishing third in the 3000m, and is likely to race the 1500m in Yokohama.
Joining them is Fukube, who was also a winner in the 2022 Seiko Golden Grand Prix. The Japanese champion set the national record of 12.73 in the 100m hurdles last year. Her fellow sprint hurdles national record-holder Shunsuke Izumiya, who clocked 13.06 in the 110m hurdles in 2021, is also in action, as are Shunya Takayama and Rachid Muratake, who won at the Continental Tour Challenger meeting in Sydney earlier this month.
The men’s 400m hurdles will feature World Championships semifinalist Kazuki Kurokawa, while his Oregon teammate Hyuga Endo competes in the 5000m.
Asian indoor 3000m bronze medallist Yuma Yamamoto will make her Seiko Golden Grand Prix debut in the 3000m in Yokohama.
This year's World Athletics Continental Tour offers the biggest calendar yet and includes 14 Gold level events spread across five of the six continental areas. The action kicked off in Melbourne, Australia, on 23 February and runs through to September, when the Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica in Zagreb, Croatia, welcomes athletes on 8-10 September.
Other athletes already announced for Tour events include Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce for the Botswana Golden Grand Prix on 29 April, Mondo Duplantis for the Ostrava Golden Spike on 27 June, and Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver for the FBK Games on 4 June.
