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.
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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