Hopes for the first Japanese to make an Olympic final in the men's 100 meters barely made it out of the starting blocks.
Ryota Yamagata, Yuki Koike and Shuhei Tada were all eliminated in their first-round heats of the 100 on Saturday, the opening day of the athletics competition at the Tokyo Olympics at National Stadium.
Yamagata, who became the national record-holder when he clocked 9.95 seconds in June, finished fourth in his heat in 10.15, showing that no matter how much one prepares, a slight lapse in just one race can bring it all down.
"That's the way the 100 meters is," said Yamagata as he struggled to come to terms with the result. "I need some time [to determine the cause]."
The first three in the seven first-round heats, plus the next three fastest, qualified for the semifinals on Sunday evening. The slowest of the "next-fastest" times was 10.12.
Koike, who also has run a sub-10-second race, placed fourth in his heat in 10.22, while Tada, who has a personal best of 10.01, lagged behind in sixth in his race in 10.22.
Just looking at their personal bests, it was the strongest trio Japan has ever entered in an Olympic 100, but nothing went right. Yamagata failed to put on his usual late spurt. Tada, known as a strong starter, was beaten out of the blocks by American in the next lane. Koike straightened up too soon and was never among the leaders.
With the pandemic, it was difficult to get a grasp of the condition of the top competitors overseas. Still, just taking into account that the qualifying standard for Tokyo was lowered 0.11 seconds to 10.05 from that used for the 2016 Rio Olympics, it was not hard to imagine the level would be high from the early rounds.
In Rio, no one broke 10 seconds in the preliminary heats; on Saturday, there were four who did so, led by the 9.91 posted by Canada's Andre de Grasse. Even U.S. national champion Trayvon Bromell finished fourth in his heat, and needed his time of 10.05 to advance.
"The Olympics is special, but this is not my first time," said Yamagata, who feels the burden as Japan captain at the Games. "[The high level] was beyond what I imagined, but if I had run in the 10.0s, there wouldn't have been a problem."
Koike acknowledged he was overmatched, saying, "Their strength is that they were at their peak for this event." A disappointed Tada said, "I didn't run my race at all."
The top sprinters in the world are now challenging each other to fill the shoes of retired legend Usain Bolt. The Japanese need to put it all on the line from the first round. There is a larger gap than is shown in the times.
-- Hashioka leaps into final
Yuki Hashioka needed just one jump to become the first Japanese to qualify for the final of the men's long jump since 1984.
The 22-year-old Hashioka leaped 8.17 meters on the opening jump of the qualifying round in his Olympic debut, surpassing the automatic qualifying standard of 8.15 with the longest-ever jump by a Japanese athlete at an Olympics.
"I was excited, but I was able to focus on the competition," said Hashioka, who has a career-best of 8.36, putting him within reach of making the medal podium.
Cuba's Juan Miguel Echevarria led the qualifiers with a jump of 8.50.
The last Japanese to make the long jump final was Junichi Usui at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Japan at one time was a world powerhouse in the jumping events -- Chuhei Nambu won a bronze medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Games and Naoto Tajima repeated that result at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
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