Japan qualifies for both men’s relays in Paris

NASSAU – Japan has qualified for the Paris Olympics in both men’s relays after winning the qualifying races at the World Athletics Relays in Nassau on Saturday.

The team of Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, Hiroki Yanagita, Koki Ueyama and Sota Miwa won Heat 4 of the 4×100 relay in 38.10 seconds and booked its ticket to Paris.

China also qualified by finishing second in 38.25, while the top two in each heat secured both Olympic places and places in Sunday’s final.

“It’s the first time we’ve used this sequence, but we were as determined as we were nervous,” said lead runner Sani Brown. “Now we want to take it to the next level.”

Sani Brown said he only practiced the exchange with Yanagita twice, but they managed to put the team on the path to victory with a smooth pass.

In the men’s 4×400 relay, Kentaro Sato, Yudai Nishi, Fuga Sato and Kaito Kawabata combined to win Heat 1 in 3 minutes 0.98 seconds to earn an Olympic berth.

Japan failed to qualify in the women’s 4×100 and mixed 4×400 events after finishing seventh in both qualifying races.

In Sunday’s final, Japan finished fourth in both the 4×100 and 4×400, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal each. Yanagita and Miwa were joined by Shoma Yamamoto and Koki Ueyama in the 4×100 team that missed third place by .01 to France, while Yuki Joseph Nakajima replaced Nishi in the 4×400 foursome that finished .04 behind third place in Belgium.

In the men’s 4×100, Japan will be hoping to regain a spot on the medal podium that has been elusive in recent years. Japan won the silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and followed that up with consecutive bronze medals at the 2017 and 2019 world championships.

The Japanese team failed to reach the final of the Tokyo Olympics and subsequently finished fifth at the 2023 world championships in Budapest. Yanagita and Sani Brown were members of the final team.