The Japan Championships (27th-30th), which also serves as the final selection for the Paris Olympic Athletics Team, will be held at the Denka Big Swan Stadium in Niigata City. A press conference was held on the 26th before the opening, and Nozomi Tanaka (24, New Balance), who will compete in the women’s 800m, 1500m, and 5000m, expressed her enthusiasm for her second consecutive Olympic appearance, saying, “I want to make this a four-day event where I can compete in all three events.”
Tanaka has already been selected as an Olympic representative in the 5000m, and if he breaks the participation standard (4 minutes 2.50 seconds) in the 1500m and wins, he will then have his second “Paris ticket” in that event.
Tanaka, who will be competing in three events over four days following the 2021 and 2022 tournaments, said, “Competing in three events at the Japan Championships means I’ll be tackling it on a tight schedule. Last year I did two events, but somewhere in the back of my mind I always wanted to try three events, so this year I’ve already qualified (for the Olympics) in the 5,000m, so I’ll have the opportunity to try three events.”
Tanaka further stated that “at the Japan Championships two years ago, my theme was to win.” However, this year, “rather than simply focusing on winning, I’d like to challenge myself in various races, even if I lose.” He revealed his unique mindset, saying, “Right now, I’m feeling scared of the challenge, but I want to have a time when I feel like that fear has disappeared while I’m challenging myself.” “Rather than focusing on winning, I want to have the mindset of really going for the loss.”
With just one month to go until the Olympics, he imagined the time until his second Olympics saying, “I think the month will probably go by in the blink of an eye, but in the meantime we’ll have the Japan Championships, and I’ll be going to training camps in locations I’ve never used before, so I think it’s going to be a very intense time.”
Source: Japanese