Japan tripled its medal count on the second day of athletics competition at the Jakarta Asian Games, adding another gold, its first silver and two more bronze medals to its tally. The silver came in the morning session with Keiko Nogami's 2nd place finish in the women's marathon, previously covered here.
The gold and one bronze came in an exciting decathlon that saw defending champ Keisuke Ushiro and teammate Akihiko Nakamura in 2nd and tied for 3rd going into the 1500 m. Ushiro needed a 2-second margin over leader Suttisak Singkhon of Thailand to move into the gold medal position, which he did with ease. Tied with China's Kewei Gong, Nakamura needed as much of a margin as he could get over Gong to finish in the medals and 42 seconds over Singkhon to take silver. Nakamura went out hard, but although he had no trouble putting Gong away the margin he needed to make up to Singkhon was just too big.
The other bronze came via one of Japan's biggest hopes. With a best of 10.00 Ryota Yamagata is one of the contenders to follow Yoshihide Kiryu under 10 seconds in the men's 100 m. In the Jakarta final he faced the perfect rival to make it happen, Asian record holder Bingtian Su of China. With a +0.8 m/s wind reported by Japanese TV but missing from the results Yamagata got off to a strong start, even with Su until the final meters before losing ground. Su claimed gold in an Asian Games record 9.92, with Tosin Ogunode of Qatar catching Yamagata on the lean to take silver in a PB 10.00. Barely leaning at the line, Yamagata was 3rd in an agonizing 10.00, tying his PB. Just a little more lean and 9.99 would have been his.
For the Asian Games the level of competition was high, seemingly a commonality across other non-distance events this year. You could see this in the number of 4th and 5th-place finishes by Japanese athletes. Medal hopeful Yuki Hashioka jumped 8.05 m in the men's long jump and teammate Shotaro Shiroyama a 7.98 m PB, but neither finished in the medals as China's Jinan Wang took gold with an Asian Games record 8.24 m. Julian Walsh and Masumi Aoki were each 5th in the men's 400 m and women's 100 m hurdles. Takatoshi Abe looks like a medal contender in the men's 400 m hurdles where he went through the semis with the third-fastest time, 49.71, but you never know. Either way, it's exciting to see the level coming up across Asia with just two years to go until it hosts the summer Olympics again in Tokyo.
Jakarta Asian Games Day Two Japanese Results
Jakarta, Indonesia, 8/26/18complete results
Men's 100 m Final +0.8 m/s
1. Bingtian Su (China) - 9.92 - MR
2. Tosin Ogunode (Qatar) - 10.00 - PB
3. Ryota Yamagata (Japan) - 10.00 - PB tie
4. Abdullah Akbar Mohammed (Saudi Arabia) - 10.10
5. Chun Han Yang (Taiwan) - 10.17
6. Hassan Taftian (Iran) - 10.19
7. Lalu Muhammad Zohri (Indonesia) - 10.20 - PB
8. Kuk Young Kim (South Korea) - 10.26
Men's 400 m Final
1. Abdalelah Hassan (Qatar) - 44.89
2. Muhammed Anas Yahiya (India) - 45.69
3. Ali Khamis (Bahrain) - 45.70
4. Arokiarajiv (India) - 45.84
5. Julian Walsh (Japan) - 45.89
6. Mikhail Litvin (Kazakhstan) - 46.17
7. Abbas Abbas (Bahrain) - 46.41
8. Kalinga Kumarage Hewa Kumarage (Sri Lanka) - 46.49
Women's 100 m Hurdles Final
1. Hyelim Jung (South Korea) - 13.20
2. Emilia Nova (Indonesia) - 13.33 - PB
3. Yiu Lui Lai (Hong Kong) - 13.42 - PB
4. Dou Wang (China) - 13.50
5. Masumi Aoki (Japan) - 13.63
6. Anastassiya Vinogradova (Kazakhstan) - 13.64
7. Hitomi Shimura (Japan) - 13.74
8. Hsien Hsieh (Taiwan) - 13.92
Men's Long Jump Final
1. Jianan Wang (China) - 8.24 m +0.7 m/s - MR
2. Yaoguang Zhang (China) - 8.15 m +0.0 m/s
3. Sapwaturrahman Sapwaturrahman (Indonesia) - 8.09 m +0.0 m/s - PB
4. Yuki Hashioka (Japan) - 8.05 m/s +0.0 m/s
5. Shotaro Shiroyama (Japan) - 7.98 m +0.4 m/s - PB
6. Sreeshankar (India) - 7.95 m +0.0 m/s
7. Dandubendiruppe Wimalasi (Sri Lanka) - 7.86 m +0.0 m/s
8. Deok Hyeon Kim (South Korea) - 7.65 m +0.2 m/s
Men's Decathlon Final
1. Keisuke Ushiro (Japan) - 7878
2. Suttisak Singkhon (Thailand) - 7809 - PB
3. Akihiko Nakamura (Japan) - 7738
4. Kewei Gong (China) - 7671 - PB
5. Mohd Almanna (Qatar) - 7442
6. Donghwi Choe (South Korea) - 7345 - PB
7. Fauma Defril Jumra (Indonesia) - 6112
Women's 100 m Semifinal Standings
1. Yongli Wei (China) - 11.29 - Q, Heat 2
2. Edidiong Odiong (Bahrain) - 11.38 - Q, Heat 2
3. Olga Safronova (Kakakhstan) - 11.42 - Q, Heat 1
4. Hajar Alkhadi (Bahrain) - 11.43 - Q, Heat 1
5. Dulee Chand (India) - 11.43 - Q, Heat 1
6. Xiaojing Liang (China) - 11.44 - q, Heat 1
7. Nigina Sharipova (Uzbekistan) - 11.53 - q, Heat 1
8. Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli (Malaysia) - 11.70 - Q, Heat 2
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15. Kana Ichikawa (Japan) - 12.01 - Heat 2
Women's 400 m Hurdles Qualification Standings
1. Oluwakemi Adekoya (Bahrain) - 54.87 m - Q, MR
2. Thi Lan Quach (Vietnam) - 55.74 m - Q, PB
3. Anu Raghavan (India) - 56.77 m - Q
4. Aminat Jamal (Bahrain) - 57.01 m - Q
5. Eri Utsunomiya (Japan) - 57.99 m - Q
Men's 400 m Hurdles Semifinal Standings
1. Abderrahman Samba (Qatar) - 49.34 - Q, Heat 3
2. Dharun Ayyasamy (India) - 49.55 - Q, Heat 3
3. Takatoshi Abe (Japan) - 49.71 - Q, Heat 1
4. Chieh Chen (Taiwan) - 50.30 - Q, Heat 2
5. Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan (India) - 50.46 - Q, Heat 2
6. Eric Shauwn Cray (Phillippines) - 50.54 - q, Heat 3
7. Dmitriy Koblov (Kazakhstan) - 50.58 - Q, Heat 1
8. Seh Yun Han (South Korea) - 50.69 - q, Heat 1
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10. Takayuki Kishimoto (Japan) - 50.95 - Heat 3
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