Silver and Bronze - Summary of Japanese Performances at 2017 London World Championships

Thanks to a last-minute rush Japan walked away from the London World Championships with a passable haul. The JAAF judges performance in terms of medals and top 8 finishes. Up to Saturday, only one Japanese athlete had met either, 18-year-old sprinter Abdul Hakim Sani Brown finishing 7th in the men's 200 m final as the first Japanese man to make a 200 m final at Worlds since 2003. Three other Japanese athletes had scored top 10 placings, Yuki Kawauchi and Kentaro Nakamoto in the men's marathon and Ayuko Suzuki in the women's 10000 m, but under the JAAF's criteria these were not viewed as success.

Saturday's men's 4x100 m final brought the first Japanese medal of the Championships, with Japan following up on its Rio Olympics silver with a bronze, its first-ever Worlds medal in the discipline. Sunday morning brought Japan's best-ever showing in the men's 50 km race walk, Rio bronze medalist Hirooki Arai moving up to silver, Kai Kobayashi taking bronze with a PB performance and teammate Satoshi Maruo cracking the top 8 at 5th.

And that's how things stood in the end: one silver, two bronzes and two top 8, all but one in the same two events where Japan showed strength in Rio. There were some other small successes, Ayako Kimura becoming the first Japanese woman ever to make a World Championships 100 m hurdles semifinal and Rina Nabeshima running one of the fastest times ever by a Japanese woman in the 5000 m heats, but there were more signs of decline than improvement. No men in the 5000 m or 10000 m for the first time in Worlds history. No Japanese marathoners in the top 8 for the first time since 1995. A big fall-off in the men's javelin. With three years to go until the Tokyo Olympics it's not looking encouraging for Japanese track and field's home ground chances.

London World Championships Japanese Results

London, U.K., Aug. 4-13, 2017
click here for complete results

Finals
silver - Hirooki Arai, Men's 50 km Race Walk
bronze - Kai Kobayashi, Men's 50 km Race Walk
bronze - Men's 4x100 m Relay (Shuhei Tada, Shota Iizuka, Yoshihide Kiryu, Kenji Fujimitsu)
5th - Satoshi Maruo, Men's 50 km Race Walk
7th - Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, Men's 200 m
9th - Yuki Kawauchi, Men's Marathon
10th - Kentaro Nakamoto, Men's Marathon
10th - Ayuko Suzuki, Women's 10000 m
11th - Isamu Fujisawa, Men's 20 km Race Walk
14th - Eiki Takahashi, Men's 20 km Race Walk
16th - Mao Kiyota, Women's Marathon
17th - Yuka Ando, Women's Marathon
18th - Kumiko Okada, Women's 20 km Race Walk
19th - Mizuki Matsuda, Women's 10000 m
19th - Akihiko Nakamura, Men's Decathlon
20th - Keisuke Ushiro, Men's Decathlon
24th - Miyuki Uehara, Women's 10000 m
26th - Hiroto Inoue, Men's Marathon
27th - Risa Shigetomo, Women's Marathon
38th - Daisuke Matsunaga, Men's 20 km Race Walk

Semifinals
5th - Takatoshi Abe, Men's 400 m Hurdles
5th - Shota Iizuka, Men's 200 m
5th - Shuhei Tada, Men's 100 m
6th - Aska Cambridge, Men's 100 m
7th - Genta Masuno, Men's 110 m Hurdles
7th- Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, Men's 100 m
8th - Ayako Kimura, Women's 100 m Hurdles

Heats/Qualification
5th - Yusuke Ishida, Men's 400 m Hurdles
6th - Ryo Kajiki, Men's 400 m Hurdles
6th - Takamasa Kitagawa, Men's 400 m
6th - Hitomi Shimura, Women's 100 m Hurdles
7th - Hideki Omura, Men's 110 m Hurdles
7th - Shunya Takayama, Men's 110 m Hurdles
8th - Men's 4x400 m Relay (Kentaro Sato, Yuzo Kanemaru, Kazushi Kimura, Kosuke Horii)
9th - Takashi Eto, Men's High Jump
9th - Rina Nabeshima, Women's 5000 m
9th - Hiroki Ogita, Men's Pole Vault
9th - Marina Saito, Women's Javelin Throw
12th - Ryohei Arai, Men's Javelin Throw
13th - Yuki Ebihara, Women's Javelin Throw
13th - Hironori Tsuetaki, Men's 3000 m Steeplechase
14th - Risa Miyashita, Women's Javelin Throw
14th - Ayuko Suzuki, Women's 5000 m
15th - Ryoma Yamamoto, Men's Triple Jump
15th - Seito Yamamoto, Men's Pole Vault

© 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Tada and Arai/Kobayashi photos by Ekiden Mania, © 2017 Kazuyuki Sugimatsu, all rights reserved
Kawauchi/Nakamoto photo © 2017 Mike Trees, all rights reserved

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