Tokyo National Stadium’s Mondo athletics track put through its paces

The National Athletics Championships were held at the Tokyo National Stadium: the results on the track provided by Mondo

The Mondo athletics track in Tokyo’s National Stadium, the centrepiece of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, is still propelling athletes towards superb performances as demonstrated by the 109th edition of the Japanese National Championships, which were held from 4-6 July.

Designed as a test event ahead of this year’s World Athletics Championships, which will be in little more than two months’ time from 13-21 September, no less than 108 personal bests were produced from close to a thousand athletes in action over the three days of the championships.

The athletics track was specifically developed for the 2020 Olympic Games – which were eventually held the following year due to the global pandemic – in a unique shade of red before being constructed and installed between August and November 2019.
The nine-lane National Stadium has 19,900 square metres of Mondo athletics track which converts into approximately 235 tonnes of surfacing product.

Six years later, it is still one of the most outstanding athletics tracks in the world and was instrumental in Tokyo being chosen in July 2022 to stage this year’s World Athletics Championships.

Japanese National Championships: the performances

The leading performances at this year’s Japanese National Championships from athletes hoping to make the host nation’s team for the World Athletics Championships Included:

  • 2025 Asian Championships javelin bronze medallist Yuuta Sakiyama improving his personal best by more than three metres when he launched his implement to a championship record of 87.16m.
  • Teenage middle-distance talent Rin Kubo, just 17, set a national senior 800m record (as well as national U20 and U18 records) when she won over two laps of the track in1:59.52. Her mark was also a world-leading U20 time and a championship record.
  • 16-year-old sprint sensation Sorato Shimizu clocked 10.19 for the 100m, just 0.1 shy of the world age-best for the blue riband event.
  • 2025 Asia-leading marks came from Towa Uzawa, who equalled his personal best of 20.12 (0.0) to win the 200m, while Mako Fukube clocked 12.75 to win her 100m hurdles semi, although the latter had to settle for third in the final won by Yumi Tanaka in 12.86.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics Records

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games there was a stunning set of superlatives.

  • 3 World Records
  • 3 World U20 Records
  • 12 Olympic Records
  • 28 World-leading marks
  • 28 Area Records
  • 151 National Records
  • 198 personal bests
  • 396 season bests

Expectations are high that a similar array of feats will be produced on the Mondo athletics track during the nine days of action at the forthcoming World Athletics Championships.