Five Japanese men including the top two placers at the 2020 Olympic marathon trials ran Sunday's Prague Marathon in a last shot at qualifying for the 2024 trials to be held on Oct. 15. Takayuki Iida (Fujitsu), Yuichi Yasui (Toyota) and '20 trials runner-up Yuma Hattori (Toyota) ran most of the way together on mid-2:08 pace, while Kyoya Tsujino (NTN) and '20 trials winner Shogo Nakamura (Toyota) fell off early. Yasui and Hattori began to slow after 25 km, but Iida held on for 5th in a PB of 2:09:34, the first time a Japanese man has gone sub-2:10 in the Czech Republic, and under the 2:10:03 he need to run to become the 66th man to qualify for the trials. After 25 km Yasui and Hattori's projected finish time slowed 30 seconds ever 5 km, meaning Yasui would stay under the 2:11:12 he needed for qualification but that Hattori was right on the edge of his 2:10:13 qualifying time. Both kicked in the home straight, Yasui taking 6th in 2:10:33 and Hattori a step behind in ...
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