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Paris Olympics Day 1 and 2 Japanese Results



Athletics competition kicked off at the Paris Olympics with the men's and women's 20 km race walks. One of Japan's best medal chances, the men's race saw Koki Ikeda and Yuta Koga sit in the second pack through the second half of the race, ultimately finishing 7th and 8th in 1:19:41 and 1:19:50. Ikeda was only 30 seconds back from bronze medalist Alvaro Martin of Spain and another 16 seconds from gold medalist Brian Pintado of Ecuador. Third Japanese man Ryo Hamanishi was 18th in 1:20:33. Overall it was an improvement on the team's performance in the Budapest World Championships last summer, where Koga was 12th and Ikeda 15th.

With Kumiko Okada and Ayane Yanai withdrawing to focus on the mixed relay, the women's 20 km race walk had only one Japanese athlete, Nanako Fujii. With China's Jiayu Yang leading all three medalists under 1:26:00 in 1:25:54, Fujii was a distant 32nd in 1:34:26.

No Japanese athletes were in action in the morning session at the start of day two, but all three women in the 5000 m heats at the top of the evening session were eliminated. Yuma Yamamoto led much of the first heat and at one point had a lead of 50 m, but after the pack caught her and NR holder Nozomi Tanaka took over Yamamoto faded to 17th of 20 finishers in 15:43.67. Tanaka led the pack the rest of the way, but with 9 people competing for 8 qualifying spots over the last lap she was dropped by the other 8 in the home straight and took 9th in 15:00.62, the fastest non-qualifier in either heat. A late addition to the Olympic team when a roll down spot opened up, Wakana Kabasawa was 19th of 20 finishers in heat two in 15:50.86.

In the women's triple jump qualifying round, Mariko Morimoto jumped 13.40 m (-0.6) for 14th in Group B, missing out on a place in the final by 65 cm.

In the brilliant men's 10000 m final that saw the top 13 go under 27 minutes, 2024 national champion Jun Kasai, another late addition to the team, ran a respectable 27:53.18 but finished only 20th of 24 finishers. Runner-up at both the 2023 and 2024 national championships, Tomoki Ota never looked good and finished 24th in 29:12.48, lapped twice by medalists Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda, Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia and Grant Fisher of the U.S.A. Kyudenko team member Benard Koech was 5th in a PB of 26:43.98.

© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Stefan said…
Nozomi Tanaka must be wondering whether she made a tactical error in her heat. I would have liked to see her stick to Yuma Yamamoto when she broke away as I'm sure as Yamamoto faded she would have been able to maintain a good pace and grab that top 8 finish she required. Tactically, I thought Yamamoto did well and gave herself a chance but based on her performances this season and last her finishing time is what was to be expected. Tanaka has been in good form of late so it is disappointing to not see her make the final. Her closing 200m seems to be her shortcoming. Yuma Yamamoto and Wakana Kabasawa must be disappointed with their times. Neither was anywhere close to their personal bests.
August 3, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Anonymous said…
The Japanese women runners don't seem to have any tactics. Pretty much in every single big, international race, they just go out and frontrun, whether it suits their talents/condition or not. The English language announcers always make bemused note of this, though they are too nice to come right out and ask the question, "Why do the Japanese women always try to frontrun when it never works?" I really feel bad for them, as they probably work very hard to get to these big races. The question is:Why do they do it? Is it conservative, old male coaches telling them to do it, or a Japanese sports culture attitude that allows for no other tactic?
August 4, 2024 at 5:22 PM
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