Shinno Makes Top 8, Matsuda Solos Marathon for 9th - Oregon 22 Day 4 Japanese Results

With both teammates out with COVID it was down to Mizuki Matsuda to represent Japan in the women's marathon at the Oregon 22 World Championships. As the front group went out at World Championships record pace Matsuda let go of both them and a chase group centered around Great Britain's Jess Piasecki and Americans Sara Hall and Emma Bates, all alone by 3 km and running that way the rest of the race. As far back as 17th at one point, by the end of the first 14 km lap she was in 16th, 24 seconds behind the chase group which now included U.S. record holder Keira D'Amato.

As the leading trio went through halfway in 1:09:01 and the chase quartet in 1:10:17 Matsuda was up to 13th in 1:10:38. From there until 40 km it was a steady advance up through the field in pursuit of a top 8 finish, Matsuda closing to within 2 seconds of D'Amato in 8th. But D'Amato had superior closing speed, and held her off 2:23:34 to 2:23:49.

Up front Ethiopian Gotytom Gebreslase, 3rd-placer at this year's Tokyo Marathon in 2:18:18, dropped Kenyan Judith Jeptum Korir to set a stellar new Championships record of 2:18:11. Korir was 9 seconds back for silver, Kenyan-born Israeli Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, 2nd in Nagoya this spring in 2:18:45, taking bronze in 2:20:18. Led by Hall's 2:22:10 for 5th, all three Americans made the top 8, something Japan hasn't pulled off at the World Championships since Paris 2003.

How would things have played out if women-only NR holder Mao Ichiyama and half marathon NR holder Hitomi Niiya had made it to the starting line? It's not likely either of them would have been in the race for a medal, but the team duel with the Americans would have been a hell of a race. Hard not to wonder too what would have happened if Matsuda had worked together with the U.S. group and Piasecki instead of running the last 40 km on her own. In 7 marathon starts to date this was only her second time not going under 2:23. Could she have followed Hall to do it again? We'll never know.

Already the first Japanese man to make a World Championships high jump final, Tomohiro Shinno scored a top 8 placing, clearing 2.27 m on his first attempt but unable to make it over 2.30 m. The legend Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar won with a world-leading 2.37 m, his Tokyo Olympics co-gold medalist Gianmarco Tamberi 4th at 2.33 m on his second attempt behind a NR 2.35 m jump from South Korea's Sanghyeok Woo and Ukrainian Andriy Protsenko, who cleared 2.33 m on his first attempt for bronze.

With three marathoners and at least five coaches and two team officials out with positive COVID tests so far, the latest casualty on the Japanese team was sprinter Yuki Koike, whose positive result was announced 45 minutes before his 200 m heat. His teammates both advanced, Koki Ueyama turning in a 20.26 PB for 2nd in Heat 1 and veteran Shota Iizuka miraculously making it through with a 20.72 for 3rd in Heat 2, the slowest qualifying time to make the semifinals.

text and photo © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved