Japan's Mao Ichiyama at the Tokyo Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
The six athletes who will represent Japan in the marathon at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 were named by the national governing body on Tuesday (29).
National record-holder Kengo Suzuki will be joined by Gaku Hoshi and Yusuke Nishiyama in the men’s squad for the global event, which takes place on 15-24 July, while the women’s team features Mao Ichiyama, Mizuki Matsuda and Hitomi Niiya.
Suzuki ran 2:04:56 to break the Japanese record at the Lake Biwa Marathon last year and finished fourth at this year’s Tokyo Marathon in 2:05:28. Hoshi won this year’s Osaka Marathon on his debut in 2:07:31 and Nishiyama won the Beppu-Oita Marathon, also when making his debut, clocking 2:07:47.
Ichiyama, whose PB of 2:20:29 from 2020 is the women-only national record, won the 2021 Osaka Women's Marathon and then finished eighth at the Olympic Games before a sixth-place finish in Tokyo earlier this month. Matsuda won this year’s Osaka Women's Marathon in a PB of 2:20:52, while Niiya ran 2:21:17 to place seventh in Tokyo.
Japanese marathon team for Oregon
Women
Mao Ichiyama, Mizuki Matsuda, Hitomi Niiya
Men
Gaku Hoshi, Yusuke Nishiyama, Kengo Suzuki
