Japan scored its first gold medal in athletics at the 2025 FISU World University Games on the fourth day of competition. Strong in the qualifying rounds, Tatsuki Abe (Juntendo Univ.) ran away from the men's 110 mH field with a 13.47 (-0.3) for the win over silver and bronze medalists Angel Diaz Rodriguez of Spain and Mondray Barnard of South Africa, both timed at 13.59. Hayato Higuchi (Hosei Univ.) was off his best at 13.90 for 7th.
Koki Fujihara (Toyo Univ.) brought home another medal in the men's long jump. Opening with a solid 8.00 (-0.8) jump, Fujihara sat in 1st through the first 3 rounds until China's Heng Shu dropped a 8.07 m (-0.6) jump in the 4th round. Fujihara couldn't match that, and when Shu ended with a 8.09 m (+0.9) jump on his final attempt Fujihara was left with silver. German Luka Herden took bronze with a 7.96 m (-0.1) on his 2nd attempt.
No medals came in the men's high jump, where gold medal contender Sota Haraguchi (Juntendo Univ.) struggled to a 10th-place finish after clearing only 2.13 m. Shun Yamanaka (Kyoto Univ.) was 7th at 2.17 m, with Israeli Jonathan Kapitolnik tying Haraguchi's best at 2.27 m for the win.
In qualifying rounds, after a promising run in the heats, Genta Iki (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) pulled up in the men's 200 m semifinals, last in his SF and overall in 23.08 (-1.0). Both Mao Shimano (Nihon Joshi Taiiku Univ.) and Rei Honda (Juntendo Univ.) made it through the first round heats of the women's 100 mH, Shimano in 13.04 (+0.5) for the top spot in Heat 3 and Honda in 13.42 (+0.6) for 4th in Heat 4. Potential Tokyo World Championships team member Rin Suzuki (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.) qualified for the men's javelin throw final with a 74.01 m for 4th in the B-group, but Hiroya Kiyokawa (Tokai Univ.) didn't make it after finishing only 7th the A-group with a 69.74 m throw.
Tetsu Sasaki (Waseda Univ.) was 4th in Heat 1 of the men's 3000 mSC in 8:51.38, easily making the final. As with the 10000 m no Japanese men ran the 5000 m heats, and in the women's 5000 m heats Wakana Hashimoto (Meijo Univ.) missed the final with only a 16:17.90 for 11th in Heat 2, while her Meijo teammate Mei Hosomi was a DNS in Heat 1 after a great run in the 10000 m.
The FISU World University Games continue through Sunday.
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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