Hironaka Silver Again - Hangzhou Asian Games Athletics Day 5 Highlights

After taking silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games 10000 m, former NR holder Ririka Hironaka was back in the 5000 m to try again for gold. And you can't say she didn't try. Hironaka immediately dictated the terms of the race, leading the first 1000 m in 3:00.43 and most of the way to 2000 m in 6:04.28 before pulling into the 2nd lane to let Ethiopian Bahraini Bontu Edao Rebitu do some of the work. The pace immediately slowed, with 3000 m and 4000 m splits of 9:14.44 and 12:24.30, until Hironaka attacked again.

Over the last 1000 m she accelerated steadily and one by one cracked all three African-born athletes and India's Anita until the only one left behind her was 3000 m SC silver medalist Parul Chaudhary of India. On the back straight Hironaka managed to open some distance on Chaudhary and it looked like she might actually pull off the win, but with less than 50 m to go Chaudhary reeled her back in to take gold in 15:14.75 to Hironaka's 15:15.34, a 2:51.04 closing km for Hironaka. Kazakhstan Kenyan Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui took the bronze in 15:23.12, holding off Japan's Yuma Yamamoto by just under 7 seconds.

In the men's decathlon, Shun Taue and Yuma Maruyama built on their good performances on the first day, Taue winning the 1500 m in 4:38.27 and Maruyama taking 3rd in 4:45.17. That was enough to give Maruyama the bronze medal with 7568 points overall, just short of Indian silver medalist Tejaswin Shankar's 7666 PB. China's Qihao Sun won gold at 7816 points despite finishing last in the 1500 m. Taue was 4th with 7271 points.

The night wrapped with the men's 4x100 m, with Japan fielding a team of half veterans and half new blood. Japan's first-ever sub-10 runner Yoshihide Kiryu handed off to Yuki Koike, who put Japan ahead on the back straight. 200 m gold medalist Koki Ueyama kept that going to build a lead that could help relatively inexperienced anchor Shoto Uno bring it in to gold. But China's anchor Jiapeng Chen was too strong, catching Uno for home soil gold in 38.29 and knocking Japan back to silver in 38.44. Bronze medalists South Korea tied their national record at 38.74, with 4th and 5th-placers Thailand and Indonesia also turning in NR of 38.81 and 39.25. Malaysia initially placed highly but was disqualified for lane infringement.

In the women's 400 mH, the superhumanly muscular Nigerian Bahraini Oluwakemi Adekoya, who lost her 2018 Asian Games gold medal and served a just-ended 4-year ban after testing positive for stanozolol in early 2019, was back at age 30 and faster than ever, breaking her own pre-ban Asian Games record from way back in 2014 to win in 54.45. With a packed 80,000-capacity stadium, many were the eyes that rolled.

China's Jiadie Mo was also under Adekoya's old Games record at 55.01 but had to settle for celebrating silver in front of her tens of thousands of home ground supporters. Indian Vithya Ramraj won bronze in 55.68, continue India's remarkably good showing at these Games. Japan's Ami Yamamoto was 7th in 57.66.

Kazuki Kurokawa looked to be in position for a medal in the men's 400 mH against African-born Qataris Abderrahman Alsaleck and Bassem Hemeida, but he was caught by China's Zhiyu Xie after the last hurdle and dropped to 4th. Alsaleck won gold in 48.04, Hemeida clocking a PB 48.52 for silver and Xie beating Kurokawa by just 0.05 for bronze in 49.16. Yusaku Kodama initially finished 7th but was disqualified when it was ruled he hadn't properly cleared one hurdle.

In the absence of world champion Haruka Kitaguchi, women's javelin throw gold went to India's Annu Rani, who threw a 62.92 m SB. Sri Lankan Nadeesha Lekamge bettered China's Huihui Lyu for silver with a 61.57 m PB, Lyu throwing 61.29 m on her 5th attempt and knocking Marina Saito, 61.10 m on her opening throw, back to 4th. Sae Takemoto was 6th at 55.39 m.

In qualifying rounds, Ayano Shiomi was the 3rd-fastest overall in the women's 800 m heats in 2:06.37, making it to Wednesday's final. China's Chuyu Wang was fastest at 2:05.37 with Sri Lanka's Tharushi Mudiyanselage next at 2:05.48.

Complete results here. The Hangzhou Asian Games continue through Thursday.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

japan running news

Search This Blog