Toyoda Kane (21, 4th year student at Keio University) will attempt the feat of becoming the first Japanese to compete in two hurdle events at the Olympics. Toyoda will compete in the 400m hurdles preliminaries and finals on the first and second days of the Japan Athletics Championships (June 27-30, Niigata). On the third day, he will compete in the 110m hurdles preliminaries and semifinals, and on the fourth and final day, he will compete in the finals, running around the track at Denka Big Swan Stadium in Niigata.
In the 400m hurdles, he has already broken the standard record of 48.70 seconds for the Paris Olympics. If he wins this tournament, he will be immediately selected for the Olympic team, and if he finishes in the top three, he will be selected for the team in early July.
The problem is the 110m hurdles, where Toyoda is 0.02 seconds short of the standard record of 13.27 seconds. If he can beat the standard record in any round of the tournament, whether it be the qualifying, semi-finals, or finals, he will be selected for the national team as soon as he wins. Even if he comes in second, he will be selected for the national team in early July, but he must clear the standard record as a prerequisite.
Based on the contents of the press conference held on June 26th, the day before the opening day, we will introduce what Toyoda is confident about and what are the uncertainties.

Success in GGP gives confidence in 400m hurdles

At the beginning of the press conference, Toyoda stated his confidence in both events.
“I’ve been able to practice without any problems. Now, if I can just follow my race plan, I should be able to win. I want to try both events.”

Toyoda is likely to be selected for the national team in the 400m hurdles. He won the Golden Grand Prix (GGP) in May with a time of 48.36 seconds, the fifth fastest time in Japan’s history. Kazuki Kurokawa (23, Sumitomo Electric Industries) recorded 48.58 seconds at last year’s World Championships, and Kaito Tsutsue (25, Sports Techno Kazuhiro) also recorded 48.58 seconds at the Kinami Memorial in May this year. Although the time difference is not large, Toyoda’s 48.36 seconds is the fastest time for a Japanese athlete since 2007. With Kurokawa having just recovered from an injury and his season best not being under 50 seconds, Toyoda is widely agreed to be the top contender to win.

“In GGP, I held back a little in the first half of the race, but I’m planning to keep up with the others a little more (early in the race than GGP) and then pull away at the end. I want to take first place and beat GGP in terms of time.”

Regarding the 400m hurdles, based on his excellent performance in the GGP, he has a pretty concrete image of how the race will play out. First, he plans to decide on the Olympic representative in the 400m hurdles, and then, after reducing his mental stress, he will take on the 110m hurdles in the second half of the race.

Things you won’t know until you try

Her personal best in the 110m hurdles is 13.29 seconds, which is 0.02 seconds off the standard, but because she has not competed in any major competitions compared to the 400m hurdles, it will be difficult for her to qualify based on her world ranking.

“I don’t think I can make the national team unless I beat the Olympic standard, so I’ll be aiming for a good time in the semi-finals and finals (apart from the qualifying rounds). I’ll go in with momentum to get under 13.27 seconds.”

However, when it comes to the 110m hurdles, there are some aspects that you can’t know until you try.
One is physical strength. Considering the risk of injury, training cannot be as taxing as a match. The physical damage after the 400m hurdles or after the preliminaries and semi-finals of the 110m hurdles is something that can only be understood by actually trying it. Cases where five hurdles are run in one match are sometimes seen in inter-university competitions. Toyoda also participated in two events until his second year of university. However, the tax at the Japan Championships is much greater than that at the Intercollegiate Championships.

“There are some things I don’t know how it will turn out, but I think I can compete to the very limit, physically speaking.”

Another thing is to balance both events in terms of movement and training. From my third year of university onwards, I clearly separated the 110m hurdles from the 400m hurdles, both when competing and when practicing. That way, it was easier to be aware of the issues I had to address during practice, and especially in races, there was a “risk of injury” if I ran the 110m hurdles immediately after the 400m hurdles. “This time, I’ll be running in the competition on consecutive days, so I’m a little worried about whether my legs will hold up,” he said honestly. Toyoda is not just saying he’s confident, but he is saying it based on solid evidence.