As already announced the next weekend will be the turn of the 20km Japanese Championships in Kobe.
As usual, the Kobe event offers the public a perfect organization, but also excellent results.
We believe that this year it will be like this.
In the 20km men the contenders for the victory are many.
The principal favorite to the victory should be Eiki Takahashi (JPN) who boasts a personal best of 1:18:03 established in Kobe, on the same course, but which dates back to Feb. 15, 2015 when he won his first Japanese Champion title on classic Olympic distance.
Takahashi then repeated in 2016 (1:18:26 - Feb. 21, .2016) and in 2017 (1:18:18 - Feb. 19, 2017) and this year obviously aims for the fourth consecutive title.
Another favorite is Isamu Fujisawa (JPN), also with a personal best under 1:19:00 (1:18:23), obviously always obtained in the streamlined course of Kobe in the last edition when he arrived second behind Takahashi and distanced only of 5".
The third Japanese athlete who has a personal best under 1:19:00 is Daisuke Matsunaga (JPN), the youngest of the three, with his 1:18:53 established in Nomi, JPN on the occasion of his first victory at the Asian Championships of 20km on March 20, 2016. Matsunaga was also confirmed victorious in the 2017 edition.
Among other things, Daisuke Matsunaga is the current seasonal leader on the distance with the time of 1:20:12 obtained in his first walk of the New Near on Jan. 1, 2018.
We stop at these three athletes even if the claimants will be others, as the ranking of Japan in 2017 on the distance of 20km is quite thick.
Here below the top 10 athletes.
But who will not be the match, unfortunately, is Yusuke Suzuki (JPN).
The world record holder (1:16:36 established at Nomi JPN on March 15, 2015) has been injured since that year when he was forced to retire at the World Championships in Beijing as a result of muscular and pubalgia problems.
While it seemed on the road to recovery, it has recently been the subject of an unfortunate incident, reported in the Japanese press, which has cost him a disqualification by the JAAF (the Federation of Japan) of six months from October 1, 2017 and therefore expires on March 31, 2018.
Being matters that are not typical of sports, but derive from it, we limit ourselves to suggest the following links that could provide our readers with information on the matter.
Takahasi, Fujisawa and Suzuki in Kobe, 2015