Running News Daily

Maruo secures Olympic spot

Satoshi Maruo won the battle for Olympic Games selection on Sunday (11), securing the last remaining place on Japan’s men’s 50km race walk team by winning the national event in Wajima in 3:38:42.

With two team places already decided, athletes had been racing to join Yusuke Suzuki and Masatora Kawano at the home Olympics this summer and intentions were clear from the start. The leaders went through 10km in 44:25 and the pace picked up again as Tomohiro Noda led through 20km in 1:27:18.

Noda and Maruo – who finished seventh and fourth respectively in the Japanese Race Walking Championships over 20km in February – had broken away by the halfway point, which they passed in 1:48:16, with 2017 world bronze medallist Kai Kobayashi behind them in third.

After a slight dip, the pace increased again and Noda created a gap on 2017 world fourth-placer Maruo but it was not sustained and Maruo made up ground as the pace slowed at around 38km, moving ahead around 41km into the race.

Behind him, 2018 Asian Games champion Hayato Katsuki was working his way through the field and first passed Kobayashi with around 4km remaining. One kilometre later he had moved into second place, with Kobayashi also passing Noda.

Remaining untroubled at the front, Maruo – who was contesting his first 50km race walk since 2019 when he set his 3:37:39 PB – held on to claim victory by almost four minutes.

Katsuki finished second in a PB of 3:42:34, with Kobayashi third in 3:43:31, Noda fourth in 3:45:26 and Isamu Fujisawa fifth in 3:46:27.