Japan is going to an Olympic Trials Marathon race in 2020.
And to show how good the Japanese are at the marathon to get into the Trials you pretty much need to run sub 2:11 in the marathon as a man or sub 2:29 as a woman (at one hot weather marathon the standard moves to 2:15 but you still have to be top 3 Japanese). The standards aren't straightforward as the Japanese federation is making sure there is tons of interest in their Japanese marathon tv broadcasts so you still have to finish high in those races. As for the Trials race itself, it's not just top 3 across the line automatically make the team.
http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-mgc-6-inside-2020-tokyo-olympic.html
Thoughts?
Anyone know how many US men would have made the last Trials if the standard was 2:11?