Skip to main content

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

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

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
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more