The women's marathon at the World Championships used to be a fairly reliable source of medals or at least top 8 finishes, but as the first race on Day 8 in Budapest showed those days are slipping farther and farther away. 9th last year in Oregon, Mizuki Matsuda was the top Japanese woman again this time at 13th in 2:29:15, starting slow before passing teammates Rika Kaseda and Sayaka Sato but unable to break into the top 8. Kaseda was 19th in 2:31:53 and Sato 20th in 2:31:57, the medals going to Ethiopians Amane Beriso and Gotytom Gebreslase in 2:24:23 and 2:24:34, and fast-closing Moroccan Fatima Ezzahra Gardadi in 2:25:17. The formerly Japan-based Rosemary Wanjiru and Selly Chepyego Kaptich were the top two placers for Kenya at 6th and 7th in 2:26:42 and 2:27:09.
With that down, Japan's only other real medal shot was in the men's 4x100 m final where it was one of five teams who could realistically place on the podium. Over the first three legs Japan was more or less even with the U.S.A. team, but a shaky exchange from Yuki Koike to anchor Abdul Hakim Sani Brown cost them time that Sani Brown couldn't recover despite a great run. U.S.A. took gold with a world-leading 37.38, Italy silver in 37.62, and Jamaica bronze in 37.76. Great Britain was 4th in 37.80, Japan just behind in 5th in 37.83. With only a 0.07 margin to the medals it could have gone another way if things had been just slightly different, but after DQs in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and again in Oregon last year, just getting that close again was a big confidence builder for the young team as it looks to bigger things in Paris next year.
One last top 8 placing came in the women's 5000 m, where new NR holder Nozomi Tanaka sat tucked into the back end of the pack through a race of extremes in pace, hanging on in the end to take 8th in 14:58.99. Faith Kipyegon of Kenya scored another gold to go with her 1500 m title, winning in 14:53.88 over Sifan Hassan and Beatrice Chebet. No top 8 placing for decathlete Yuma Maruyama, though, as he took 15th of 16 finishers with 7844 points.
After a great run in Oregon last year the Japanese men's 4x400 m team couldn't quite capitalize on the breakthrough runs from its 2nd through 4th runners Fuga Sato, Kentaro Sato and Joseph Nakajima in the 400 m heats and semifinals, taking 5th in Heat 1 in a season best 3:00.39 but missing the time qualifier cutoff by 0.16 seconds.
Japan's squad in the men's marathon was the fastest it has ever put together, with 2:05 runners Ichitaka Yamashita and Kenya Sonoda and 2:06 man Kazuya Nishiyama, but in warm conditions it was going to be unpredictable. Yamashita, probably the Japanese marathoner right now with the best chance of breaking the national record, told JRN the day before the race, "I'm hoping for good things. It's my first summer race so I don't know, but I'm feeling good." So it was no surprise to see him up in the action most of the way, looking good until with 5 km to go he wasn't. Tying up, he dropped from 5th to a shuffling 12th in 2:11:19. Sonota and Nishiyama were never factors, Sonota 35th in 2:16:40 and Nishiyama 42nd in 2:17:41.
Ugandan Victor Kiplangat won gold in 2:08:53, with 2022 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Maru Teferi of Israel running down formerly Japan-based Ethiopian Leul Gebresilase in the home straight for silver 2:09:12 to 2:09:19. All three Japanese men now face the difficult task of qualifying for next summer's Paris Olympics, either by doubling back for the Oct. 15 Olympic trials or by running 2:05 in one of the winter domestic marathons and beating anyone else who does the same.
Back in the day the World Championships used to have team medals in the marathon, with the fastest three of up to five starters scoring on combined time. With only three starters this time only eight countries had three women finish and six had three men finish. Ethiopia would have taken team gold in both races with combined times of 7:15:10 and 6:31:58. Japan would have taken women's team silver at 7:33:05 and 4th among men in 6:45:40. Women's bronze would have gone to Uganda in 7:33:25, with Spain and Canada taking the men's silver and bronze at 6:39:22 and 6:42:44.
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