Mirroring the lackluster performances in the men's 100 m, none of the three Japanese men in the 200 m moved on past the first round heats. Jun Yamashita came closest at 20.78 for 5th in the third heat, 0.25 off qualifying on time. In his third Olympics Shota Iizuka was 6th in the opening heat in 21.02, with Abdul Hakim Sani Brown 6th in the second heat in 21.41.
In the evening session, national record holder Shunsuke Izumiya and previous NR holder Taio Kanai easily made it through the heats, Izumiya 2nd in the fourth heat in 13.28 and Kanai 3rd in the fifth heat in 13.41. Third man Shunya Takayama was the only one to falter, 6th in the third heat in 13.98.
The men's 5000 m saw the low point in this Olympics so far for the Japanese team. In heat one, Yuta Bando was 17th in 14:05.80. In heat two, Bando's Fujitsu teammate Hiroki Matsueda was 18th in 14:15.54. Both finished in the bottom four of the combined field of 37 finishers, enough to give serious doubts about the condition Fujitsu marathoner Shogo Nakamura will be in on Sunday morning.
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