Hidekazu Hijikata, who holds the 7th place in Japan's all-time record, will be participating in the Osaka Marathon, which will be held this month as one of the selection races for the men's marathon representative for the Paris Olympics, as invited athletes.
The Osaka Marathon will be held on the 25th of this month as one of the selection races for the men's marathon representative for this summer's Paris Olympics. The athlete with the fastest time of over 5 minutes 50 seconds will be selected to represent the team.
On the 5th, Toshihiko Seko, who is in charge of strengthening the marathon at the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, held a press conference in Osaka to announce the invited athletes, including 26-year-old Hijikata, who holds the seventh-best marathon record in Japan, and the 2018 Four athletes with personal records of 2 hours and 6 minutes will be participating, including Asian Games gold medalist Ohito Inoue.
Naoki Koyama, who has already been selected to represent the Paris Olympics, will also be participating.
The course of this year's Osaka Marathon has been significantly changed, reducing the number of turnarounds from five to three, and there are fewer ups and downs around 30km in the second half of the race, so it is hoped that a good record will be achieved.
Mr. Seko said, ``With fewer turns and uphills, you'll be able to conserve a lot of stamina. I hope as many people as possible can set a good record.''
NHK has decided to broadcast the races of top athletes on general television and other channels.