Kitaguchi, Ueda and Akamatsu Make Finals - Paris Olympics Day 7 Morning Session Japanese Results

Day 7 of athletics at the Paris Olympics kicked off with one of Japan's few chances at a medal, the marathon race walk mixed relay. Masatora Kawano took it out hard, leading early with honorary Japanese team member Evan Dunfee of Canada and staying with the pack once caught. 20 km NR holder Kumiko Okada took over for the 2nd half of the race but soon lost touch and drifted back to her final finishing position of 8th in 2:55:40, just over 4 minutes behind bronze medalists Australia. Spain took gold in 2:50:31, with Ecuador beating Australia by 16 seconds for silver in 2:51:22. Japan's B-team of Kazuki Takahashi and Ayane Yanai was 13th in 2:58:08. 8th place for the A-team was far off a medal, but as another top 8 finish to go with those in the men's 20 km race walk it clicks a box in the JAAF's metrics for success at this Olympics. 

Japan's best chance at an individual medal, 2023 world champion Haruka Kitaguchi led off with a 62.58 m throw that put her over the 62.00 m auto-qualifying standard and sent her straight to the final. 6 other women threw further, and even though half of them took multiple attempts to better Kitaguchi's single throw a medal in the final is definitely not a done deal. Momone Ueda survived a tense last round in qualification group B to take the final qualifying spot with a 2nd throw of 61.08 m. Marina Saito threw 59.42 m for 10th in group A and did not advance.

In the men's high jump qualification, Ryoichi Akamatsu was one of only 5 men to clear 2.27 m, a season best for Akamatsu on his 3rd attempt that put him into the final alongside 2021 gold medalists Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi. Tomohiro Shinno struggled to clear the early heights at only made it over 2.20 m, missing out on the 2.24 m it took to make top 12 and go on to the final.

In the women's 100 mH, NR holder Mako Fukube made the semifinals with the last time qualifying spot, running 12.85 (-0.1) for 4th in Heat 1. Yumi Tanaka ran only 12.90 (0.0) for 5th in Heat 2 and was bumped to the repechage round.

In the day's only repechage, Yume Goto was 11th of 12 finishers in the women's 1500 m Heat 1 in 4:10.40, over 7 seconds off making top 3 and going on to the semifinal.

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