Marathoners Masato Imai and Sairi Maeda were named Wednesday to compete for Japan for the first time at the 2015 IAAF World Athletics Championships to be held in August in Beijing.
Japan will send three men and three women to Beijing. Joining Imai in the men's race will be Masakazu Fujiwara and Kazuhiro Maeda. This will be Fujiwara's second straight appearance at the worlds and his third overall. It is also the third time for Maeda.
Sairi Maeda ran the eighth-fastest marathon by a Japanese woman on Sunday, when she finished third in 2 hours, 22 minutes, 48 seconds at the Nagoya Women's Marathon. Mai Ito, who was fourth in that race, will attend her first worlds since 2011. Risa Shigetomo, who was third in this season's Osaka Marathon, will complete the women's team.
Every Japanese runner finishing in the top eight in Beijing will automatically be selected to run at next year's Rio de Janeiro Olympics.