The Japanese team at the London World Championships has few real medal prospects. Its best chances come in the men’s 4×100 m, where the roster includes ever newer and faster blood than last year’s Olympic silver medal-winning team in 18-year-old Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) and 21-year-old Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.), and the men’s race walks, where the 20 km features Eiki Takahashi (Fujitsu), #2 in the world this season, and Hirooki Arai (SDF Academy), the 50 km Rio bronze medalist.
If there is another solid medal prospect it comes in the women’s marathon, where Japanese athletes have won eleven medals in fifteen World Championships to date. Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) ran the fastest-ever debut by a Japanese woman with a 2:21:36 at March’s Nagoya Women’s Marathon, putting her at 5th on the London entry list. There have been calls for her to be cautious in coming back with another hard marathon so soon after her first, but a run anything like what she did in March should put her in reach of at least bronze. Her mid-2:23 teammates Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Risa Shigetomo (Tenmaya) should play important supporting roles and factor into a slower race.
While the men are staying home, Japanese women will be at work in both the 5000 m and 10000 m. Two years ago in Beijing Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) ran one of the best-ever 5000 m at Worlds by a Japanese woman, 15:08.29 for 9th. She’s still working back from an injury and hasn’t hit peak form, beaten by junior teammate Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) at Nationals, but things look to be headed in the right direction. The JAAF surprisingly didn’t name a third woman to the team despite multiple solid candidates, leaving it up to Suzuki and the very promising Nabeshima.