Skip to main content

Murakami a Surprise Bronze - Berlin World Championships - Day Nine

by Brett Larner

Following Yoshimi Ozaki's silver medal in the women's marathon, little-known Yukifumi Murakami earned Japan its second medal of this year's World Championships with a bronze in the men's javelin. Coming into the qualification round with a PB of 81.71, only the eighth-best in the field, Murakami shot to attention when he threw 83.10 on his second attempt, earning him the number two ranking going into the final and making him the first Japanese athlete in decades to make a javelin final.

With the national eye abruptly turned toward him, Murakami took the pressure in stride and again broke his pre-Championships PB with a throw of 82.97 to edge out Latvia's Vadims Vasilevskis for the bronze. Apart from the great hammer thrower Koji Murofushi, Murakami's medal was Japan's first-ever field medal. With this unexpected success he will return to Japan a star alongside Ozaki.

2009 Berlin World Championships - Top Results
Men's Javelin
1. Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway) - 89.59
2. Guillermo Martinez (Cuba) - 86.41
3. Yukifumi Murakami (Japan) - 82.97
4. Vadims Vasilevskis (Latvia) - 82.37
5. Tero Pitkamaki (Finland) - 81.90

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .
Post a Comment
Read more