Osaka women's marathon champion Mizuki Noguchi and nine others will compete at the Paris World Championships in August, the Japan Association of Athletics Federations (JAAF) said Monday.
JAAF officials said Noguchi, winner of the Osaka meet in 2 hours, 21 minutes, 18 seconds, along with Tokyo marathon runnerup Rie Matsuoka and Nagoya marathon champion Takami Ominami each automatically qualified for the meet with top national times.
Masako Chiba and Naoko Sakamoto, runnerup and third place finisher at the Osaka meet, respectively, were also selected to participate in Paris. Tsuyoshi Ogata, who placed second at the Fukuoka marathon, Tokyo runnerup Shigeru Aburaya, and Masakazu Fujiwara, third at the Biwako meet, all qualified in the men's category.
Also booking places were Pusan Asian Games runnerup Koji Shimizu and Atsushi Sato.