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Ichiyama and Hironaka Make Top 8 - Tokyo Olympics Athletics Day Nine Japanese Results


Bumped up an hour on short notice, the women's marathon was one of the events at the Tokyo Olympics where Japan hoped to get onto the podium, or at least into the top eight for the first time since national record holder Mizuki Noguchi's gold medal in Athens in 2004. 

All three Japanese women, Honami Maeda, Ayuko Suzuki and Mao Ichiyama, were up in it early, Maeda doing her share of frontrunning in the earliest stages, but when the race really got moving only Ichiyama was left. After 32 km she lost steam and started to drop back, falling as low as 9th, but a lucky break with Kenyan-born Israeli Lonah Salpeter stopping and walking at 38 km while battling American Molly Seidel for bronze put Ichiyama back into 8th, where she stayed until she crossed the finish line in 2:30:13. "I've got no regrets about finishing 8th," she said post-race. "Thanks for cheering from so early in the morning."

Suzuki was 19th in 2:33:14 and Maeda 33rd in 2:35:28. Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir took gold in 2:27:20, knocking world record holder Brigid Kosgei back to silver in 2:27:36 and keeping Kosgei out of the exclusive club of people to both break a marathon world record and win Olympic marathon gold. Seidel hung on for bronze in 2:27:46 almost a minute up on 4th-placer Roze Dereje.

In the women's 10000 m, 5000 m national record holder Ririka Hironaka, 20, ran big again. In only her third time running 10000 m Hironaka was 7th in 31:00.71, making her the 4th-fastest Japanese woman ever and first in 25 years to make top 8 at the Olympics. Hironaka just outkicked Germany's Konstanze Klosterhalfen to finish as the top woman born outside Africa. The 10000 m national record is sure to be on her list of targets next. Hitomi Niiya and Yuka Ando were 21st and 22nd out of 24 finishers in 32:23.87 and 32:40.77.

photo © 2021 David Motozo Rubenstein, all rights reserved
text © 2021 Mika Tokairin, all rights reserved

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Stefan said…
With the hot and humid weather and Honami Maeda confidently up front in the early stages flashbacks of her stellar run in the 2019 MGC qualifier came to mind. And with the slower pace and her 2:25:15 in that hot Tokyo race I was thinking perhaps this might be her day. Unfortunately, things did not pan out for her nor the other Japanese athletes, Ayuko Suzuki and Mao Ichiyama. I had high hopes for better results so am disappointed but perhaps other factors like injuries played a role. I saw the post race interview with Honami Maeda but because it was in Japanese did not understand it. She did mention condition and motivation (as they were words spoken in English) but in what context I do not know. Unfortunately, I do not speak Japanese so did not understand it. Maybe she was making no excuses for the performance? Sinead Diver from Australia at the age of 44 finishing in 10th place was simply amazing and of course, the 3rd place from Molly Siedel was incredible. It was such a shame a Japanese athlete could not finish in a podium position. I think the young Japanese athletes from the track, Hironaka Ririka and Nozomi Tanaka have run superbly achieving PBs and National Records in the process. This is why the expectation and disappointment was so high for the marathoners. It will be very interesting to see how well each of the Japanese athletes perform next time they race a marathon.
August 7, 2021 at 5:54 PM
Dave Fujiwara said…
Is there any explanation for Hitomi Niiya's performance?
August 15, 2021 at 5:58 AM
Brett Larner said…
As I wrote in the preview, in the lead-up to Tokyo she didn't seem to be in the same kind of shape as last year. Some people like Hironaka and Miura benefitted from an extra year while for others is was a minus.
August 16, 2021 at 9:03 AM
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