Tokyo Olympic Marathon National Team, 6 men and women, March 8 15:00
The marathon representatives of the Tokyo Olympics have finished all the selection races, and there are six unofficial athletes for both men and women.
For the Tokyo Olympic marathon, the top two men and women first decided on the MGC = Marathon Grand Championship last September, and three men and women were selected on the 8th to the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon and the Nagoya Women's Marathon. After the race, the last one was offered.
The boys were MGC 1st Shogo Nakamura, 2nd place Yuma Hattori, and Yoshio Osako, who marked the Japan record of 2 hours 5 minutes 29 seconds at the Tokyo Marathon.
The three women were selected as MGC's 1st place Honan Maeda, 2nd place Ayuko Suzuki, and Nagoya Women's Marathon, 4th place in Japan's 4th place with 2 hours 20 minutes 29 seconds Mao Ichiyama .
In addition, based on the selection criteria of the Japan Athletics Federation, the boys are Shohei Otsuka in MGC and Ryo Hashimoto in 5th place in the MGC, and the girls are Rei Obara in 3rd place in MGC and Mizio Matsuda in 4th place in MGC. Each will be a substitute.
The Tokyo Olympics marathon will take place in Sapporo, with women starting at 8:00 am on August 8 and boys starting at 7:00 am on August 9.
Courses in Sapporo
The men and women marathon of the Tokyo Olympics will take place in Sapporo instead of the Tokyo course where the athletes competed in last year's MGC.
Last year, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced that the venue for the marathon and race walk will be moved to Sapporo as a countermeasure against the heat wave, and as a result of the adjustment, the course was decided to depart and arrive at "Sapporo Odori Park" in the center of Sapporo City .
The marathon course is an irregular course to reduce the burden and simplicity of the stakeholders. The first lap is a large loop of 20 km, and the second and third laps are small loops. Around 10 km.
Although there are ups and downs before and after the 8km point in the early stages, the race is expected to be a flat course with little difference in altitude, and a high-speed race is expected because temperatures are expected to be lower than Tokyo.
In addition to the Sapporo TV Tower, it passes through Sapporo's most famous sights, such as Hokkaido University and the red brick office building of the Hokkaido Government. Of these, the premises of Hokkaido University, which passes three times, have fine cranks, making it difficult to see the players in front of them. Because of this, it is likely to be a trickhouse for the second half, such as the spurt.
A new way of selecting marathon representatives
In order to bring about a change in the marathon world of Japan, which has been sluggish for a long time, the marathon selection for the Tokyo Olympics will be unprecedented with the introduction of the MGC = Marathon Grand Championship, a selection race that will be a “one-shot match” for the first time. Was.
In 2017, the Japan Athletics Federation Toshihiko Seko Marathon Strengthening Strategy Project Leader gathered elites who broke through strict standards with the aim of selecting players capable of fighting the world and ensuring transparency in selection. We announced a new selection method based on MGC, a selection race of "one shot game" that decides two of the three representatives.
The past marathon representatives were selected by the Japan Federation of Federations based on the results and content of major competitions held in the season prior to the Olympics, but in the latest Rio de Janeiro competition, the best Japanese athletes The ranking was 16th for boys and 14th for girls, and the selection of players was controversial at each tournament, so he drove a major change in the selection method.
With the new selection method shown, athletes had clearer goals and tangible results with increased motivation for the marathon.
For boys, in 2018, Yuta Shitara set a new record in Japan, which was unbroken for 16 years, and just seven months later, Osako set another record in Japan.
Even young women and young, fast-paced athletes have become more and more challenging in marathons from track events. At the MGC last September, two men and women were selected, each with high “adjustment ability” capable of demonstrating their ability to perform in the actual race, assuming a mid-summer race. The best performing player was selected from among the players who broke the set record in the target race after the MGC.
As a result, in the boys, Osako set a new record of 2 hours, 5 minutes, and 29 seconds with 21 seconds of his own record. The team won the championship in a 29-second time, defeating overseas players, and proved that this representative selection method has greatly contributed to raising the level of the Japanese marathon.
Expectations are growing that Japanese men and women will be able to reach medals after a long absence at the Tokyo Olympics, as both men and women have competed with the world's best players in the selection race.