Nozomi Tanaka, who advanced to the final in the Tokyo Olympics, the 1500-meter semi-final for track and field women, set a new record in Japan for the first time in the 3-minute range.
It is the first time in 93 years for both men and women to advance to the finals of the Olympic middle-distance track and field event since Kinue Hitomi at the 1928 Amsterdam Games.
The stamina cultivated at 5000 meters was utilized for the stickiness of the last lap.
Tanaka participated in the 5000 meters in addition to the 1500 meters in this tournament.
"I've been practicing with an emphasis on the 5000 meters," he said.
However, although he marked his personal best in the 5000-meter qualifying held five days ago, he missed the final by just 0.38 seconds and was disappointed that he could not cope with the last spurt of the world.
Still, what I focused on 5000 meters lived at 1500 meters on the 4th.
In the last lap, as expected, the powerful players increased their pace and entered the game, but Tanaka bite and finished without being greatly separated until the end.
In medium- and long-distance events, there are many cases where Japanese players are separated at the end compared to overseas players who are superior in sprinting ability, but Tanaka showed a tenacity that Japanese players have not had so far.
After the race, Tanaka analyzed, "I've been practicing the 5000 meters with the utmost care not to lose speed. I think the stamina I trained there was alive in this race as well."
He expressed his convincing expression, "At the end, I stopped, but I was able to reach the goal without letting go, and I think I was a little closer to the world."
It was 5,000 meters with tears by a small margin, but it was never a waste to have done multiple events, and the improvement of the running itself led to a wonderful advance to the final.
The stage of the 1500m final, which is the first Japanese player to stand, and the stamina trained by Tanaka at 5000m, will attract attention as to how far he can catch up with overseas players.
Advancement to the middle-distance final is a feat for the first time in 93 years
It is the first time in 93 years for both men and women to advance to the finals of the Olympic middle-distance track and field event since Kinue Hitomi at the 1928 Amsterdam Games.
Kinue Hitomi is the first Japanese female athlete to be an Olympic medalist and won the silver medal in the 800-meter track and field women's race in Amsterdam 93 years ago.
Men have advanced to the semi-finals twice at 800 meters in the 1956 Melbourne Games and the 1964 Tokyo Games, but have never made it to the finals.
Recently, both men and women have been in a difficult situation to participate in the Olympics in the middle-distance event, and Nozomi Tanaka and Ran Urabe, who lost in the qualifying for the 1500m women's race, were the first Japanese to participate in this event.