NAGOYA –
Japan handed the 200-medal mark on the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on September 30, with siblings Mitsuki and Hayato Kondo successful judo gold medals inside half an hour of one another, Ami Ishii and Taizo Yoshida taking wrestling titles, Sorato Anraku defending his sport climbing crown, and the boys’s soccer staff surviving a dramatic penalty shootout to succeed in the ultimate.
Japan collected 5 gold, six silver and 6 bronze medals through the day, lifting its total whole to 50 gold, 77 silver and 73 bronze for precisely 200 medals.
With 4 days of competitors remaining, Japan had already surpassed the 188 medals it gained on the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games.
One of essentially the most memorable tales of the day got here in judo, the place the Kondo siblings accomplished a uncommon household double at Aichi International Arena.
Mitsuki Kondo, 21, gained the ladies’s 48-kilogram title earlier than her older brother Hayato, 24, adopted with victory within the males’s 60-kilogram division.
Mitsuki defeated Kazakhstan’s Abiba Abuzhakynova within the remaining, breaking her opponent’s steadiness earlier than securing a hold-down and successful by ippon.
The victory continued Japan’s dominance of the ladies’s lightest division following Natsumi Tsunoda’s title on the earlier Asian Games.
Around half-hour later, Hayato confronted reigning Olympic champion Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan within the males’s remaining.
The Japanese fighter edged a carefully contested bout, scoring his second yuko inside the ultimate minute to safe the gold medal.
Hayato stated watching his sister win instantly earlier than his personal remaining offered a further surge of motivation.
The pair grew to become solely the second Japanese brother and sister to win main worldwide judo gold medals on the identical day, following Hifumi and Uta Abe, who achieved the feat on the Tokyo Olympics.
Japan additionally gained bronze within the ladies’s 52-kilogram division by Kokoro Fujishiro.
Wrestling opened its Asian Games program with one other two Japanese gold medals.
Ami Ishii gained the ladies’s freestyle 68-kilogram title, defeating North Korea’s Pak Sol Gum 7-2 within the remaining.
Ishii took management with repeated single-leg assaults, constructing a 5-1 benefit within the opening interval earlier than including one other takedown after the break.
The 23-year-old had wanted a powerful comeback within the semifinal after falling 4-0 behind China’s Long Jia. Ishii recovered to steer 8-4 earlier than successful by fall late within the contest.
The victory gave the 2024 world champion a serious title on dwelling soil after she had missed choice for the Paris Olympics following a slender home playoff defeat.
Japan’s second wrestling gold got here from 20-year-old Taizo Yoshida within the males’s Greco-Roman 87-kilogram division.
Yoshida grew to become the primary Japanese wrestler to win an Asian Games gold medal within the weight class, offering a right away breakthrough for the boys’s Greco-Roman staff.
Kyotaro Sogabe narrowly missed one other title for Japan within the males’s Greco-Roman 67-kilogram remaining, shedding by a single level and taking silver.
Japan’s energy in ladies’s wrestling is anticipated to change into a fair larger issue through the remaining days, with a number of Olympic and world champions nonetheless to enter the competitors.
Sport climbing delivered one other gold medal by 19-year-old Sorato Anraku.
The Paris Olympic silver medalist efficiently defended his Asian Games males’s boulder title at Port Messe Nagoya.
Anraku, already thought to be one of many world’s main climbers, secured his second consecutive Asian Games gold after additionally successful at Hangzhou.
Veteran Tomoa Narasaki gave Japan a second place on the rostrum by taking bronze, returning to the Asian Games medals after lacking the rostrum on the earlier version.
The end result strengthened Japan’s place as one in all Asia’s strongest climbing nations, with additional medal alternatives nonetheless to return in lead and different occasions.
Men’s soccer produced maybe the day’s most dramatic Japanese victory.
Japan’s under-21 staff defeated Uzbekistan after a 9-8 penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw within the semifinal at Nagai Stadium in Osaka.
Uzbekistan struck first within the eighth minute, placing Japan underneath strain from the opening phases.
Japan struggled to search out an equalizer for a lot of the match however lastly broke by within the 88th minute when Sena Ishibashi scored with a header.
Neither staff might produce a winner throughout additional time, sending the match to penalties.
The shootout prolonged deep into sudden dying earlier than Japan ultimately prevailed 9-8, securing its first Asian Games males’s soccer remaining look since successful the event in 2010.
Japan will face South Korea within the October 3 remaining.
The match would be the third consecutive Asian Games males’s soccer remaining between Japan and South Korea.
South Korea has gained the previous three Asian Games titles and shall be in search of a fourth straight championship, whereas Japan is trying to finish a 16-year watch for gold.
Japan has been sturdy all through the event, advancing by the group stage with out conceding a aim earlier than progressing by the knockout rounds.
The males’s remaining follows Nadeshiko Japan’s qualification for the ladies’s championship match sooner or later earlier.
Japan’s ladies defeated South Korea 2-0 of their semifinal on September 29, with Chiina Kamiya scoring each targets within the second half.
Nadeshiko Japan will face North Korea within the October 2 remaining because it makes an attempt to win a 3rd consecutive Asian Games title.
Softball additionally remained firmly heading in the right direction for one more medal.
Japan performed twice on September 30 and recorded two extra shutout victories.
The six-time defending Asian Games champion first defeated Singapore 10-0 earlier than going through South Korea later within the day.
Left-hander Miu Goto then produced one of many excellent pitching performances of the event, throwing a six-inning no-hitter as Japan once more dominated.
The victories prolonged Japan’s unbeaten begin to 5 video games.
Japan had already overwhelmed the Philippines, Hong Kong and Thailand with out conceding a run, underlining the depth of a program that has dominated Asian softball for many years.
The round-robin event continues with stronger checks towards Chinese Taipei and China earlier than the medal part.
Japan is trying to win a seventh consecutive Asian Games softball title.
Diving introduced Japan three extra medals on September 30.
Rikuto Tamai took silver within the males’s 10-meter platform occasion, enhancing on his end result from the earlier Asian Games and reaching the rostrum for the second consecutive version.
The 20-year-old, one in all Japan’s main worldwide divers, once more challenged China’s highly effective diving staff however couldn’t forestall one other Chinese victory.
Haruki Suyama and Senri Ikuma mixed for silver within the males’s synchronized 3-meter springboard.
Sayaka Mikami added bronze within the ladies’s 3-meter springboard with 332.35 factors, giving her a second consecutive Asian Games bronze medal within the occasion.
China continued its extraordinary dominance of Asian Games diving, sustaining a successful streak within the sport that stretches again a long time.
Track biking produced two silver medals for Japan on the Izu Velodrome.
Both the boys’s and ladies’s staff pursuit squads completed second, including to Japan’s rising medal rely in biking.
The staff pursuit requires 4 riders to race towards the clock over 4 kilometers, with occasions decided by the third rider to cross the end line.
Japan entered the Asian Games with excessive expectations in monitor biking after strengthening its dash and endurance applications in recent times.
Further occasions, together with the person pursuit, dash, keirin, omnium and madison, stay on this system.
Canoe slalom equipped one other silver by Yuki Tanaka within the males’s kayak single.
The end result gave Japan one other medal within the canoe program after earlier successes in dash occasions.
Japan additionally collected silver in esports within the Identity V Asian Games competitors.
Esports stays a medal sport on the Aichi-Nagoya Games and has attracted appreciable consideration, notably following Japan’s earlier gold medal by 11-year-old Haruki Kurihara in Puyo Puyo.
Boxing introduced blended outcomes.
Sewon Okazawa, the defending Asian Games champion, misplaced 3-0 within the males’s 70-kilogram semifinal and took bronze.
Okazawa had gained gold within the 71-kilogram class on the earlier Games and was one in all Japan’s most skilled boxing representatives.
Rui Yamaguchi, nonetheless, superior to the boys’s 55-kilogram remaining with a unanimous 5-0 semifinal victory over his Mongolian opponent.
The 22-year-old will battle for gold on October 2.
Japan additionally secured bronze medals in boxing by Hayato Kitamoto within the males’s 60-kilogram division and Tsukimi Namiki within the ladies’s 54-kilogram class following semifinal defeats on September 29.
Golf started its Asian Games competitors at Kasugai Country Club on September 30.
Japan entered sturdy males’s and ladies’s groups because it seemed to problem South Korea, China and different main Asian golf nations in each particular person and staff occasions.
The event runs over 4 rounds, with medals determined later within the week.
Japan has developed growing depth in golf by the rise of younger skilled gamers on each the home and worldwide excursions.
Elsewhere, ladies’s squash reached the knockout stage, with Japan going through South Korea within the staff quarterfinals.
Padel, one of many newer sports activities on the Asian Games program, additionally continued, with Japanese males’s and ladies’s pairs progressing by the early rounds.
The inclusion of padel displays the more and more broad Asian Games program, which this 12 months options 43 sports activities starting from established Olympic disciplines to esports, breaking, blended martial arts, teqball and different rising competitions.
September 30 additionally marked the primary full day after the conclusion of athletics, which had been one in all Japan’s strongest sports activities on the Games.
The host nation completed athletics with 10 gold medals and 32 medals total.
Among Japan’s standout performances had been Ryuji Miura’s males’s 3,000-meter steeplechase victory, the boys’s 4×400-meter relay gold, Kazuto Iizawa’s males’s 1,500-meter title, Mako Fukube’s ladies’s 100-meter hurdles victory and Hayato Katsuki’s marathon race stroll gold.
The focus now shifts more and more towards wrestling, judo, climbing, biking and the remaining staff sports activities.
Japan’s males’s volleyball staff will play its quarterfinal on October 1 because it continues its try to win the Asian Games title for the primary time since 2010.
The staff progressed from its preliminary group with three straight victories after defeating Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan.
Women’s soccer reaches its remaining on October 2, with Japan going through North Korea, adopted by the boys’s soccer remaining towards South Korea on October 3.
Softball additionally reaches its medal video games on October 3, whereas judo concludes with the staff competitions on the identical day.
Japan’s medal whole of 200 after September 30 represents a big milestone.
The host nation had already surpassed its complete whole from Hangzhou with 4 days nonetheless remaining.
Five gold medals on Day 11 got here from 5 completely different athletes throughout three sports activities, whereas the boys’s soccer staff secured one other assured medal by reaching the ultimate.
The Kondo siblings’ judo double offered the defining picture of the day, however Japan’s achievements stretched throughout wrestling, climbing, biking, diving, softball, soccer, boxing, canoeing and esports.
With a number of of Japan’s strongest wrestling and judo rivals nonetheless to look and a number of staff sports activities approaching their finals, the nation’s medal whole is positioned to develop considerably earlier than the Games shut on October 4.