NAGOYA –
Ryuji Miura led a Japanese one-two end within the males’s 3,000-meter steeplechase on September 28, successful gold in a Games report of 8 minutes, 17.36 seconds as Ryoma Aoki surged late to take silver in 8:17.60 at Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium in Nagoya.
The consequence gave Japan its first Asian Games gold within the occasion in 28 years, since Yasunori Uchitomi gained on the 1998 Bangkok Games, and its first one-two end within the males’s steeplechase in 56 years.
Miura, the Japanese report holder with a better of 8:03.43, took management from the beginning and rapidly turned the ultimate right into a race run largely on his phrases.
He moved to the entrance within the opening phases and maintained his pace via the water jumps, step by step stretching the sector till he was operating alone with 4 laps remaining.
Miura handed 2,000 meters in 5:30.54 and elevated the tempo once more after listening to the bell for the ultimate lap.
Although the chasing group started closing throughout the ultimate circuit, Miura continued accelerating and attacked the final water bounce with out hesitation earlier than driving via the end to safe his first Asian Games title.
His 8:17.36 lowered the earlier Games report.
Miura mentioned afterward that the time was slower than the goal he had set earlier than the race, however he was glad with each the victory and the aggressive manner he had competed.
“I wasn’t able to reach the time I was aiming for, but I’m really happy that I was able to win my first Asian Games title,” Miura mentioned. “It was a tough race in these conditions, but I was able to run aggressively from the first half.”
He mentioned there have been troublesome moments throughout the race however he was happy to keep up management via the end.
“There were points where it became tough, but I was able to run all the way through and win the race, so I’m very happy with that.”
Competing in one other main worldwide occasion on dwelling soil additionally added to the event.
Miura mentioned the ambiance in Nagoya reminded him of the assist he skilled on the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
“It felt really good to run with so much attention from the crowd,” he mentioned. “Just like Tokyo, it became a very enjoyable competition for me.”
The victory added an Asian Games title to a world profession by which Miura has grow to be Japan’s main males’s steeplechaser.
He completed seventh on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, turning into the primary Japanese athlete to succeed in the Olympic ultimate within the occasion, earlier than putting sixth on the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, eighth on the 2024 Paris Olympics and eighth once more on the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
Miura additionally recorded a season-best 8:10.30 on the Diamond League assembly in Monaco in July.
Behind him, Aoki produced probably the most dramatic finishes of the athletics program.
The 29-year-old Honda runner stayed near Miura in second place throughout the early phases earlier than dropping as little as fourth.
Aoki remained inside putting distance getting into the ultimate lap and commenced transferring via the sector because the end approached.
He launched his ultimate assault within the closing straight and surged into second place with round 20 meters remaining, crossing the road in 8:17.60.
The efficiency improved his private greatest and gave him a second consecutive Asian Games silver medal after ending runner-up on the 2023 Hangzhou Games.
Miura and Aoki’s one-two end turned Japan’s first within the occasion since 1970.
The consequence continued a extremely productive Asian Games athletics competitors for the host nation.
Japan entered September 28 having already collected six athletics gold medals, together with victories by Misaki Morota within the ladies’s pole vault, Yuri Tanaka within the ladies’s heptathlon, Kazuya Yamashita within the males’s marathon, Hayato Katsuki within the males’s marathon race stroll, Yuma Maruyama within the decathlon and Mako Fukube within the ladies’s 100-meter hurdles.
Fukube’s victory on September 27 was one other Japanese one-two.
She gained the ladies’s 100-meter hurdles in 12.74 seconds, whereas nationwide report holder Hitomi Nakajima took silver in 12.78.
The gold was Japan’s first within the occasion in 44 years.
Japan additionally collected two medals within the ladies’s javelin on September 27, the place Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi took silver with a throw of 62.70 meters and Sae Takemoto gained bronze.
Rachid Muratake earned silver within the males’s 110-meter hurdles in 13.29 seconds, whereas Soji Mizukubo took bronze within the males’s 200 meters.
The September 28 athletics program provided additional medal alternatives throughout the lads’s 1,500 meters, males’s lengthy bounce, males’s javelin, ladies’s 5,000 meters and each 4×100-meter relays.
Chihiro Iizawa and Nagiya Mori represented Japan within the males’s 1,500-meter ultimate, whereas Yuki Hashioka and Riku Ito contested the lads’s lengthy bounce.
Nozomi Tanaka and Yuma Yamamoto had been entered within the ladies’s 5,000 meters, with Tanaka already having collected medals earlier within the Games.
Japan additionally superior each males’s and girls’s dash relay squads into the decisive phases, conserving alive hopes of additional medals earlier than the athletics program concludes on September 29.
Away from athletics, Japan secured one other silver medal in inventive swimming.
The Japanese crew completed second behind China after the ultimate free routine in Hamamatsu, extending the nation’s run of Asian Games crew silver medals to 6 consecutive editions.
Japan scored 286.2688 factors within the free routine to complete with a three-event whole of 821.7404.
China gained gold with 857.5084, whereas Kazakhstan took bronze with 672.6029.
Japan had entered the ultimate routine in second place after scoring 234.5992 within the acrobatic routine and 300.8724 within the technical routine.
The consequence adopted Japan’s silver medal within the duet, the place Moe Higa and Tomoka Sato completed second to China.
Badminton additionally offered an essential breakthrough for Japan as Akane Yamaguchi reached the ladies’s singles ultimate.
Yamaguchi superior from the September 28 semifinal to grow to be the primary Japanese girl in 28 years to succeed in an Asian Games singles ultimate.
The former world champion is competing at her fourth Asian Games and is now assured at the least silver, her first particular person Asian Games medal.
Yamaguchi had reached the semifinals after defeating India’s main challenger in three video games within the quarterfinals on September 27.
Her progress provides to an already profitable event for Japan’s ladies’s badminton program, which additionally collected silver within the crew occasion.
Japan was additionally represented within the ladies’s doubles semifinals by Takae Nakanishi and Rin Iwanaga as badminton moved towards its ultimate medal matches.
Table tennis entered its ultimate phases with Japan once more difficult for gold.
Miwa Harimoto and Hina Hayata reached the ladies’s doubles ultimate after sweeping their Hong Kong opponents 4-0 within the semifinals.
The Japanese pair gained 11-6, 11-5, 11-4, 11-6 to maneuver inside one victory of Japan’s first Asian Games ladies’s doubles title in 60 years.
Their run follows Japan’s historic males’s crew victory earlier within the Games, when Tomokazu Harimoto and Sora Matsushima helped defeat China 3-2 to present Japan its first males’s crew gold since 1966.
The desk tennis competitors has developed into certainly one of Japan’s most profitable campaigns of the Games, with medals throughout the crew and doubles occasions.
Japan’s softball crew confronted an unusually demanding September 28 schedule after rain disrupted the day prior to this’s program.
The hosts had been scheduled to play Hong Kong, China, earlier than finishing their postponed recreation towards Thailand later within the night.
Japan opened its event on September 26 with a 10-0 victory over the Philippines.
The defending Olympic champion is likely one of the main contenders for gold and can proceed preliminary-round play towards Singapore, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and China earlier than the medal video games in early October.
Men’s volleyball additionally continued its group marketing campaign after Japan opened with a straight-sets victory over Uzbekistan on September 27.
Japan gained 25-17, 25-20, 25-17 in its first match because it started its try to win the Asian Games males’s title for the primary time since 2010.
The crew confronted Kazakhstan on September 28 earlier than finishing the preliminary spherical towards Pakistan.
The event comes shortly after Japan gained the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship earlier in September and certified for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Men’s hockey introduced one other main Asian matchup as Japan confronted South Korea in preliminary-round competitors.
The Japanese crew is trying to advance from a gaggle that additionally consists of India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia because the hockey event approaches its knockout stage.
Men’s water polo additionally continued on September 28, with Japan dealing with Hong Kong after earlier preliminary matches towards Kazakhstan and Thailand.
Surfing reached its medal stage throughout the morning, with the lads’s and girls’s semifinals and finals held as Japan regarded to transform its energy within the sport into Asian Games medals.
Japan entered the browsing competitors with a powerful worldwide lineup and appreciable expectations following the nation’s Olympic success because the sport debuted at Tokyo 2020.
September 28 got here someday after one other main assortment of medals for the host nation.
Japan gained six gold, 13 silver and 9 bronze medals on September 27 alone, lifting its general medal whole to 157 by the tip of the day.
Among the standout performances was Hayato Katsuki’s dominant victory within the males’s marathon race stroll, whereas Fukube and Maruyama additionally took athletics gold.
Rim Nakamura added gold in BMX freestyle, whereas Hikaru Mori gained the ladies’s trampoline competitors forward of fellow Japanese athlete Megu Uyama.
Japan additionally took silver within the males’s baseball event after dropping 3-1 to South Korea within the ultimate at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium.
The Japanese corporate-league crew had entered the ultimate unbeaten and had defeated South Korea 5-0 throughout the Super Round, however Korea reversed the consequence when the title was at stake.
Miura’s steeplechase victory due to this fact turned the centerpiece of one other busy day for the host nation.
His managed front-running efficiency and Aoki’s late surge delivered a uncommon Japanese one-two in certainly one of Asian athletics’ conventional endurance occasions and added one other important chapter to Japan’s dwelling Games.
With athletics persevering with via September 29 and badminton, desk tennis, softball, volleyball, soccer and quite a few different sports activities nonetheless in progress, Japan stays positioned so as to add considerably to its medal whole throughout the ultimate week of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Source: TBS