Megan Tapper and Kendra Harrison (© Getty Images)
Exactly nine months on from the end of the Tokyo Olympics, several medallists from those Games will return to the Japanese capital for the Seiko Golden Grand Prix – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – on Sunday (8).
Two medallists will clash again in the women’s 100m hurdles as world record-holder Kendra Harrison takes on Jamaica’s Megan Tapper.
The pair’s last duel was in fact at the Tokyo Olympics, where Harrison took the silver medal in 12.52, just 0.03 ahead of bronze medallist Tapper. Harrison, the world silver medallist and 2018 world indoor champion, has shown the best early season form of the two, speeding to wind-assisted times of 12.32 in her specialist event and 22.19 in the 200m at the Texas Relays in late March. Tapper, meanwhile, opened her outdoor campaign with a comfortable 12.80 win in Kingston at the end of April.
It will be more than a two-woman race, though.
World indoor bronze medallist and US indoor champion Gabbi Cunningham also lined up against Harrison and Tapper in last year’s Olympic final and will do so again on Sunday. Japan’s Masumi Aoki and her predecessor as national record-holder, Asuka Terada, add further quality to the line-up.
The men’s sprint hurdles looks to be similarly competitive. Although largely a domestic field, it brings together some of Japan’s leading exponents in the event; just 0.13 separates the lifetime bests of Rachid Muratake, Shuhei Ishikawa, Shunya Takayama and Shusei Nomoto.
Olympic gold medallists return
Rai Benjamin, Michael Norman and Lynna Irby will line up on the same track where they earned Olympic gold medals last year.
Benjamin, who anchored the USA to 4x400m gold in Tokyo last year, will contest his first 400m hurdles race since the Olympics. When he takes to the track, his mind will likely be flooded with memories of the Olympic final when he clocked the second-fastest time in history – 46.17, quicker than the world record before the Games – to earn silver in what went down as one of the greatest races in Olympic history.
Japanese champion Kazuki Kurokawa, who won at this meeting last year in a PB of 48.68 before going on to compete at the Olympics, is also in the line-up.
Norman, who joined Benjamin on the victorious US 4x400m team last year, will compete over 400m on Sunday, his first one-lap race since the Olympics. The versatile sprinter opened his season with a 19.83 runner-up finish over 200m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC – a race in which Benjamin finished third in 20.01.
Australia’s Alex Beck, Japan’s Kentaro Sato and Italy’s Vladimir Aceti are also in the field.
Irby, another Olympic relay champion, will be joined in the 200m by US compatriot Angie Annelus, the fourth-place finisher at the 2019 World Championships, and much-improved Australian Jacinta Beecher, who recently clocked a PB of 22.70.
World indoor silver medallist Christian Coleman will contest his first 100m race since winning the world title over the distance in 2019. The US sprinter will face Australia’s Rohan Browning and Japan’s Shuhei Tada and Taishi Endo, among others.
High jump reunion
Three Olympic finalists will reunite in the men’s high jump. Australia’s Commonwealth champion Brandon Starc, New Zealand’s world indoor bronze medallist Hamish Kerr and Japanese indoor record-holder Naoto Tobe all featured in last year’s Olympic final and will be back in Tokyo on Sunday.
But Mexico’s Edgar Rivera and Japan’s Tomohiro Shinno are 2.31m jumpers at their best and will also be in contention for victory on Sunday. Shinno, in fact, beat Starc and Tobe in Fukuroi earlier this week.
World javelin champion Kelsey-Lee Barber returns to the runway where she earned Olympic silver. The Australian faces Latvia’s Lina Muze, New Zealand record-holder Tori Peeters and Japanese record-holder Haruka Kitaguchi.
In the men’s javelin, last year’s winner Takuto Kominami, the Japanese champion and Tokyo Olympian, will take on domestic rivals Kenji Ogura and Genki Dean. And in the long jump, Australia’s Chris Mitrevski faces Japan’s Hiromichi Yoshida.
More from Miura
Ryuji Miura was one of Japan’s big breakthrough performers last year.
Still an U20 athlete throughout 2021, he won the steeplechase at last year’s Continental Tour Gold meeting in Tokyo, breaking the senior national record with 8:17.46. He went on to reduce that to 8:15.99 and then 8:09.92 at the Olympics to earn a place in the final where he eventually placed seventh.
Miura, who turned 20, returns to the scene of his most memorable performances and will compete in his first steeplechase race of the year. Having recently clocked a huge 1500m PB of 3:36.59, he appears to be in good form.
He’ll face Kenya’s Philemon Ruto, who finished second to Miura at this meeting last year, along with Japanese Olympians Ryoma Aoki and Kosei Yamaguchi.
In the men’s 800m, USA’s Isaiah Jewett takes on New Zealand’s Brad Mathas, who won convincingly in Fukuroi earlier this week, Britain’s Guy Learmonth and Japan’s Kentaro Usuda.
Japanese record-holder and Olympic finalist Nozomi Tanaka, meanwhile, headlines the women’s 1500m field.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
