NAGOYA –
Japan’s Asian Games marketing campaign produced one other day of information and medals on September 23, with Shoon Mitsunaga setting a nationwide document to win the boys’s 100-meter butterfly, each Japanese gymnastics groups taking silver behind China, and Toshikazu Yamanishi including to the host nation’s athletics medal haul.
Away from the Games, the skilled baseball pennant races entered their last levels, with Hanshin preventing to retain its Central League lead and SoftFinancial institution approaching the Pacific League championship.
The fifth day of the Asian Games introduced a very intense contest between Japan and China, whose athletes met in swimming, gymnastics and athletics. China’s 13-year-old swimming sensation Yu Zidi accomplished a outstanding hat trick of particular person gold medals, whereas its males’s and girls’s gymnastics groups narrowly defeated Japan in entrance of dwelling spectators.
Japan’s September 23 sporting program prolonged effectively past the principal medal occasions, with competitors throughout rowing, fencing, desk tennis, capturing, biking, fight sports activities and a variety of different disciplines. The Asian Games will proceed by way of October 4, with athletics starting its seven-day program in Nagoya.
Japan’s swimming successes had been led by 21-year-old Mitsunaga, who gained the boys’s 100-meter butterfly at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in 50.56 seconds, reducing the Japanese document from 50.81. Defending champion Katsuo Matsumoto additionally reached the rostrum, taking bronze and giving Japan two medals within the occasion.
The consequence was significantly hanging given Mitsunaga’s efficiency within the morning heats, when he certified seventh in 52.54 seconds. His enchancment within the last introduced Japan its second successive Asian Games gold within the occasion.
Japan added three silver medals and one other bronze within the pool. Rio Shirai completed second within the girls’s 100-meter backstroke, whereas 35-year-old Satomi Suzuki collected silver within the girls’s 100-meter breaststroke in a Games-record time of 1:05.83. Komi Kato took bronze in the identical occasion, and Japan’s blended 4×100-meter medley relay staff completed second. Suzuki’s consequence was her eleventh profession Asian Games medal.
China’s Yu Zidi supplied the day’s different main swimming story. The 13-year-old gained the ladies’s 400-meter particular person medley in 4:28.56, setting a Games document and finishing three victories in three particular person occasions after earlier profitable the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter particular person medley.
China additionally gained the boys’s 200-meter freestyle by way of Zhang Zhanshuo and the ladies’s 100-meter backstroke by way of Peng Xuwei.
Japan’s gymnastics groups skilled remarkably related outcomes of their two staff finals, ending second to China in each competitions.
In the boys’s last, China scored 259.095 factors, ending simply over one level forward of the Japanese staff. Zhang Boheng secured the title with a powerful horizontal bar routine after Japan had entered the ultimate rotation with an opportunity to overturn China’s lead.
Olympic champion Shinnosuke Oka, competing with a again damage, fell throughout his horizontal bar routine and acquired 12.966. Teammate Daiki Hashimoto produced sturdy performances on pommel horse and vault, however China retained the Asian Games staff title for a 3rd consecutive version.
Japan additionally took silver within the girls’s competitors, scoring 165.362 factors towards China’s 166.462. The Japanese staff comprised Aiko Sugihara, Rina Kishi, Misa Nishiyama, Mana Okamura and Haruka Nakamura. It was Japan’s ninth successive Asian Games medal within the girls’s staff occasion.
The outcomes adopted Sugihara’s particular person all-around gold on September 22, the primary by a Japanese lady on the Asian Games. The girls’s staff will now flip its consideration to the world championships within the Netherlands in October.
Soft tennis equipped two extra gold medals for Japan. Toshiki Uematsu gained the boys’s singles title, with fellow Japanese participant Takuya Kurosaka taking silver, whereas Reina Tenma captured the ladies’s singles championship.
Japan additionally secured medals throughout a number of less-publicized sports activities. Nanoka Kida took silver within the girls’s jianshu and qiangshu mixed occasion in wushu. The equestrian eventing staff earned silver, with Olympic veteran Yoshiaki Oiwa including a person bronze, whereas bicycle owner Yudai Todome completed third within the males’s street race.
Athletics opened its program with the boys’s and girls’s half-marathon race walks. Japan’s two-time world champion Toshikazu Yamanishi completed second within the males’s competitors behind China’s Shi Shengji, who broke away after the 10-kilometer mark. China additionally gained the ladies’s race by way of Yang Liujing.
The athletics program, operating by way of September 29 at Mizuho Park in Nagoya, will carry additional Japanese contenders into motion as monitor and subject joins swimming, gymnastics and different established medal-producing sports activities.
Japan’s team-sport campaigns additionally superior considerably on September 23. The males’s under-21 soccer staff defeated Thailand 3-0 at Toyota Stadium to finish the group stage with three victories and no targets conceded. Yotaro Nakajima opened the scoring within the thirty first minute earlier than Keita Kosugi and Hisatsugu Ishii added two targets in fast succession early within the second half.
Japan had beforehand crushed Hong Kong 2-0 and Kyrgyzstan 7-0. The victory over Thailand secured first place in Group A and arrange a September 26 quarterfinal towards North Korea, which certified from Group B after defeating Iran 4-1. Japan is in search of its first males’s Asian Games soccer title since 2010.
The girls’s desk tennis staff additionally reached the ultimate, defeating South Korea 3-0 in its semifinal at Sky Hall Toyota. Hina Hayata and Miwa Harimoto had been among the many gamers who helped Japan advance to a second consecutive Asian Games staff last. Japan will face defending champion China on September 24, in search of its first girls’s staff gold because the 1966 Bangkok Games.
Asian Games baseball produced one other emphatic Japanese consequence because the corporate-league nationwide staff defeated the Philippines 7-0 at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium.
Japan scored twice within the second inning and 3 times within the third earlier than including one other two runs within the sixth. Koya Yano and Masami Soeda every hit a two-run dwelling run, whereas beginning pitcher Kenta Nagano and reliever Kato mixed to carry the Philippines to a few hits. Japan accomplished its opening-round marketing campaign unbeaten after earlier defeating China 11-3 and Palestine 15-0.
The three victories gave Japan first place in Group A and a spot within the Super Round on September 25 and 26. The medal video games are scheduled for September 27. Japan is trying to win its first Asian Games baseball gold since 1994.
Japan’s rowing staff additionally reached an essential milestone, with all 10 of its entered boats qualifying for his or her respective A finals regardless of heavy rain forcing adjustments to the competitors schedule on the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course in Gifu Prefecture. The medal races are scheduled for September 24.
Outside the Asian Games, Hanshin strengthened its place on the high of the Central League with an 8-4 victory over Yakult at Jingu Stadium, extending its profitable streak to 4 video games.
Haruto Takahashi pitched six innings, permitting one run on 5 hits to document his league-leading fifteenth victory. Thirteen of these wins have come away from dwelling, making him the primary Hanshin pitcher to attain that mark since Minoru Murayama in 1965.
The consequence was significantly essential after the Tigers entered the day with a 1.5-game benefit over Yomiuri and a championship magic variety of eight. The Giants remained in competition with a 2-1 victory over Hiroshima at Mazda Stadium.
SoftFinancial institution additionally moved nearer to the Pacific League title, defeating Seibu 10-3 at Mizuho PayPay Dome in Fukuoka. The Hawks’ newest victory got here as Nippon-Ham misplaced 5-3 to Rakuten at Es Con Field Hokkaido. Orix defeated Lotte 1-0 at ZOZO Marine Stadium, with Ryoma Ikeda hitting his first profession dwelling run to offer the sport’s solely run.
The day’s different Central League consequence was a 4-3 victory for DeNA over Chunichi at Yokohama Stadium.
Soccer’s home cup competitors added one other dimension to the day’s schedule, with the Emperor’s Cup persevering with on September 23. All six J1 golf equipment dealing with J2 opposition superior, together with Kashima Antlers, for whom 18-year-old Minato Yoshida scored his first aim. Kashiwa Reysol additionally progressed with a victory over FC Imabari.
Grand sumo’s September match reached its eleventh day at Ryogoku Kokugikan, the place yokozuna Onosato strengthened his place on the high of the championship race with a victory over sekiwake Fujinokawa. Onosato improved to 10 wins and one defeat, opening a two-victory benefit in spite of everything three wrestlers who had entered the day with two losses had been crushed.
Ozeki Aonishiki defeated Takanosho to safe his eighth victory and a profitable document. Sekiwake Atamifuji suffered his third defeat towards ozeki Kirishima, whereas former ozeki Asanoyama improved to 8-3 with a victory over Kinbozan. With 4 days remaining, Onosato led a bunch of six wrestlers on three losses.
In Major League Baseball, consideration surrounding Shohei Ohtani shifted towards his anticipated return to the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup after a spell on the injured listing. Manager Dave Roberts confirmed on September 22 that Ohtani was scheduled to be reinstated on September 23 following remedy for knee and biceps issues. The Dodgers had already secured the National League West title and had been getting ready for the postseason.
Japan’s September 23 sports activities program illustrated the breadth of the nation’s more and more crowded autumn calendar, from national-record swimming performances and Asian Games medals to home baseball pennant races, worldwide soccer, skilled sumo and Japanese athletes competing abroad.
The subsequent day of Asian Games competitors will carry Japan’s girls’s desk tennis staff into its last towards China, rowing’s medal races and the opening equipment finals in creative gymnastics, with additional alternatives for the host nation so as to add to its medal complete.