Miura and Uzawa Advance - Paris Olympics Day 5 Japanese Results

Monday a relatively busy day in Paris Olympics athletics for the Japanese national team. Things started off slowly with all three men in the 400 mH heats finishing near the bottom of the field of 39 starters, Daiki Ogawa running 50.21 for 33rd, Kaito Tsutsue 50.50 for 35th and the high potential Ken Toyoda last among the 37 finishers in 53.62 after a mid-race injury. All three head to the repechage round, but in Toyoda's case he'll likely be a DNS.

All three Japanese men in the 400 m repechage round, Joseph Nakajima, Fuga Sato and Kentaro Sato, gave it a miss in order to focus on the 4x400 m relay where their chances of making the final are higher.

In the men's 3000 mSC heats, national record holder Ryuji Miura made it through to the final, running close to his season best with an 8:12.41 for 4th in Heat 2. Ryoma Aoki was one of the casualties of the slow pace in Heat 3, finishing 8th in 8:29.03 and missing out on advancing.

In the men's 200 m heats 21-year-old Towa Uzawa had the Japanese performance of the day, taking the lead against 100 m gold medalist Noah Lyles of the U.S.A. and Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Andre De Grasse of Canada and holding on for 3rd behind them in Heat 6 in 20.33 (+0.1) to qualify for the semifinals. Veteran Shota Iizuka ran 20.67 (+0.2) for 5th in Heat 4 and Koki Ueyama 20.84 (-0.1) for 6th in Heat 3, both moving to the repechage round to try to join Uzawa.

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