National record holder Yoshihide Kiryu and Asian Games silver medalist Ryota Yamagata will headline Japan's 44-athlete national team for the upcoming IAAF World Relays, the Japan Association of Athletics Federation announced on Friday.
It will be the first time that Japan hosts the global relay-only event. The previous three meets were held in Nassau. The athletes will compete at International Stadium Yokohama from May 11-12 in the fourth edition.
Kiryu and Yamagata will team up with Shuhei Tada, Yuki Koike, Kirara Shiraishi, Daisuke Miyamoto on the men's 4x100 team, which set a lofty goal of winning the gold medal at next year's Tokyo Olympics.