Fresh off the sting of world and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi not making the final in the women's javelin, national pride was salved a bit in the first event the next morning on day 8 of the Tokyo World Athletics Championships.
In a tight 5-way race for the medals, women's 20 km national champion Nanako Fujii took 15 seconds off her own NR to take bronze in 1:26:18, 24 seconds behind Spain's Maria Perez, who added the 20 km gold to her 35 km victory last weekend with a 1:25:54, and 12 seconds behind Mexico's Alegna Gonzalez, who set an area record of 1:26:06. Fujii had to reach for bronze, beating Ecuador's Paula Milena Torres to the line by a step, with Peruvian Kimberly Garcia Leon 4 seconds back in 5th. All-time Japanese #2 Kumiko Okada was 18th in 1:30:12 and third teammate Ayane Yanai 37th in 1:35:44.
That brought Japan's medal count for its home soil World Championships to 2, both bronze and both in race walks. With Kitaguchi out the home team's only real remaining chance for a gold medal was in the next event, the men's 20 km, where Toshikazu Yamanishi and Satoshi Maruo were ranked 1-2 and third man Kento Yoshikawa 5th. Yoshikawa drifted a short way back relatively early, and when a series of athletes took turns throwing in surges early in the second half Maruo also fell back.
With only one red card on the books Yoshikawa made a break for it at 16 km, but the excitement got away from him and in quick succession he was given 2 more red cards, meaning he would be forced to sit a 2-minute penalty. And with that Japan's chances of a gold medal at home were gone, barring a miracle in the men's 4x100 m. Maruo, who also raced the 35 km, faded over the last 5 km, leaving Yoshikawa to come from behind for the top Japanese spot at 7th in 1:19:46.
Maruo was 9th in 1:20:09, finishing outside the top 8 again, with Yamanishi packing it in after his penalty was up and keeping it easy the rest of the way to avoid another red card and disqualification. Ultimately he was 28th in 1:22:39. Gold went to Brazilian Caio Bonfim in 1:18:35, China's Zhaozhao Wang taking silver in 1:18:43 and Spain's Paul McGrath in 1:18:45.
The only other Japanese athlete active in the morning session, Masateru Yugami could only muster up a 56.40 m in the men's discus throw, over 8 m off his recent best and putting him last in the qualifying round.
In the evening session, without a fully fit Kentaro Sato the men's 4X400 m team of Yuki Joseph Nakajima, Fuga Sato, Takuho Yoshizu and Kenki Imaizumi had a tough road ahead to the final, but even so they managed a 2:59.74 season best that would have put them 2nd in Heat 1. As it was, it was only good enough for 6th in Heat 2 and they didn't advance to tomorrow's final.
Running without its potential A-lineup exactly, the Japanese men's 4x100 m team, Yuki Koike, Hiroki Yanagita, Yoshihide Kiryu and Towa Uzawa still managed to get through to the final with a 38.07 for 3rd in Heat 2, lucking out a bit when tough rivals South Africa and Great Britian both blew the first exchange. 38.07 puts Japan at 5th among the qualifiers, something they'll have to improve on in the final tomorrow if they want to close out their home soil World Championships with one last medal. Jamaica not making it through in Heat 1 helps their chances.
In the women's 5000 m final NR holder Nozomi Tanaka ran the same kind of race Nagiya Mori did in the men's 5000 m heats, staying back out of trouble early, moving up into position before 4000 m, then fading off when things got real. With Beatrice Chebet out kicking Faith Kipyegon for gold 14:54.36 to 14:55.07 and Italian Nadia Battocletti medaling again with a 14:55.42 for bronze Tanaka was a distant 12th of 16 finishers in 15:07.34.
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