After years of pandemic-era delays, the Chengdu World University Games finally got underway July 27, with the first day of athletics competition happening Aug. 1. In the only one of the two finals featuring Japanese athletes on the 1st, athletes from China and Turkey swept the top four spots in the women's 10000 m. China's Yuyu Xia closed with a 64-second last lap to take gold in 33:48.35, Turkey going 2-3 with Yayla Kilic Gonen scoring silver in 34:05.03 and Fatma Karasu bronze in 34:10.97. China's Xiuzhen Ma held off Risa Yamazaki of Nittai University for 4th 34:30.14 to 34:35.96, with Tomo Muramatsu of Ritsumeikan University 9th in 35:17.54.
In women's qualifying rounds, Ritsumeikan's Ami Yamamoto took 3rd in Heat 2 of the 400 mH in 57.82 to advance. Aoyama Gakuin University's Yu Ishikawa was 3rd in Heat 3 of the 100 m in 12.02 -1.0 m/s and also advanced. Tsukuba University's Yuna Miura was 2nd in Heat 5 in 11.59 +0.4 m/s to join Ishikawa in the second round.
In men's qualifying rounds, Toyo University's Shota Nakamura moved on to the men's 100 m SF easily with a win in Heat 5 in 10.47 -0.7 m/s. Naoki Inoue of Waseda University was 4th in Heat 7 in 10.66 -1.2 m/s and did not advance. Tsukuba's Kenki Imaizumi took Heat 2 of the men's 400 m heats in 47.23, Naohiro Jinushi of Hosei University likewise taking Heat 5 in 46.43. The only Japanese man in the 1500 m heats, Nittai University's Hiroto Takamura was only 7th in Heat 2 in 4:00.28 and didn't make the final. Waseda University's Atsushi Shobu was 4th in Heat 1 of the 3000 mSC to qualify for the final.
Complete day 1 results here. The Chengdu World University Games continue through Sunday.
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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