Ikeda took his turn with a surge of his own, and Gathimba dropped back to deal with 2019 bronze medalist Perseus Karlstrom of Sweden. But Yamanishi wasn't going to let Ikeda get away, and over the last 2 km he pulled away for a second-straight gold medal in a season-best 1:19:07. Ikeda scored silver in 1:19:14, with Karlstrom 4 seconds back for bronze again. Hiroto Jusho was 8th in 1:20:39, making for what will probably be the best Japanese team performance in Eugene with three inside the top 8. 4th man Eiki Takahashi was 29th in 1:26:46.
The women's 20 km RW also saw a Japanese athlete in the top 8, with Nanako Fujii executing a patient race that saw her move up over the second half from 12th to 5th. With less than a kilometer to go Fujii's place in the top 5 looked safe, but in the home straight China's Hong Liu came up fast to retake her just before the line, 1:29:00 to 1:29:01. Top 2 Kimberly Garcia Leon of Peru and Katarzyna Zdzieblo of Poland both set national records, Leon winning gold in 1:26:58 and Zdzieblo silver in 1:27:31, with China's Shoji Qieyang winning bronze in 1:27:56. Japanese NR holder Kumiko Okada was 14th in 1:31:53.
In qualifying action, Yuki Hashioka came out strong, leading the men's long jump with a jump of 8.18 m +0.4. Along with American Marquis Dandy, Hashioka was one of only two athletes to go over the 8.15 m auto-qualifying standard. Teammate Natsuki Yamakawa was 21st at 7.75 m +0.5 and failed to move on to Saturday's final.
Both men in the 100 m advanced to the semifinals, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown dropping a 9.98 -0.3 to win Heat 7 and Ryuichiro Sakai getting through with a 10.12 +0.2 for 3rd in Heat 4. Sani Brown's time put him 6th in the field in an incredibly fast first round and was just 0.01 off his best, reinforcing his position as the only Japanese man to have gone sub-10 more than once.
In the men's high jump, Tomohiro Shinno cleared 2.28 m on his first attempt, the highest-ever by a Japanese man at the World Championships, to become the first Japanese man to make a Worlds final. Ryoichi Akamatsu only cleared 2.21 m and did not move on. In the women's 1500 m Nozomi Tanaka made it through to the semis on time, running 4:05.30. Ran Urabe was last in her heat in 4:14.82, 3rd-slowest of the 42 women who started.
It was no surprise that the mixed 4x400 m team didn't make the final, last in its heat in a 3:17.31 season best, but the lone miss of the opening day came in the men's 3000 m steeplechase. NR holder Ryuji Miura ran more conservatively than in the heats at the Tokyo Olympics, but when the move came he didn't seem to have the last kick that has defined most of his best performances so far. 5th in his heat in 8:21.80, Miura was the fastest non-qualifier, 0.74 off final qualifier Daniel Arce of Spain. Kosei Yamaguchi did the opposite, staying close to the front instead of hanging back like usual, but likewise he couldn't pull up his usual closing speed and took 10th in Heat 1 in 8:30.92. Ryoma Aoki was 11th in Heat 3 in 8:33.89.
Comments
Like your article mentioned most of the athletes met expectations, perhaps Shinno and Hashioka looking sharper than expected.
Miura's race was disappointing for me for 2 reasons: first being the strategy which was wrong. After the first heat the target should have been going sub 8.20 thus running to achieve a good time and not running with position in mind. His heat slowed down too much at times (Girma & co. knew they had a better finish than the others so they couldn't bother keeping the pace up, Miura and the other "outsiders" should have done that).
Second reason being it really feels he was at peak form through April and May and that he kind of slowed down since June. He was in top form a bit too soon.
He had a good race at the nationals though even there he didn't seem as briliant as 2month ago.Then in Stockholm on the 3000 metres he lost his legs after going NR pace the first 2K. I thought that time he paid for the fast 2K but I think he was showing signs of a descending form.
Yesterday despite the not brilliant strategy (in my opinion) he could have still saved it with a strong finish which is usually his strenght. We haven't really seen that since May so I really feel like something in the preparation went a bit wrong. Peak too soon.
I saw him really sad at the end and I can understand him: he is absolutely better than some of the athletes that went through and he came to the World championship with the target or improving his NR.
Really sorry that he had this kind of race today, hopefully it will be a learning experience.
Hitting peak too soon was my concern about Endo as well, I hope he will pove me wrong and that he'll manage to run well. He seemed more brilliant in April/May as well than I've seen him recently but I'll be curious to see him running.
Great run from Hironaka today on the 10000!