HANGZHOU – Japan are looking to their young talent to impress at the Paris Olympics, after finishing a distant second in the Asian Games medals table to hosts China.
Japan won 52 golds in Hangzhou and 188 medals overall, down on their haul from the previous Games in Jakarta in 2018 when they won 75 titles and 205 medals.
They were well behind China’s record-setting 201 golds here. But chef de mission Mitsugi Ogata said on Sunday that Japan’s young athletes in recently added Olympic sports can do the business in Paris.
“One reason why we are happy with our athletes’ performance is that we qualified for the Paris Olympics in many events,” he said.
“We have also had some great performances from our young athletes in skateboarding, sports climbing, table tennis and so on.”
Japan won golds through 15-year-old skateboarder Hinano Kusaki and 16-year-old climber Sorato Anraku in Hangzhou.
Hotly tipped 13-year-old Ginwoo Onodera also showed flashes of his talent before finishing out of medal contention in the men’s street skateboarding event.
But they did not do as well as in previous years in sports where they have traditionally racked up the medals.
They topped the swimming medals table ahead of China in Indonesia, but finished third behind South Korea in Hangzhou, winning only five golds and 30 medals.
They also failed to claim gold in baseball – a Japanese national obsession. They finished third behind South Korea and Chinese Taipei respectively. This despite winning the World Baseball Classic for the first time since 2009 in March.
Japan enjoyed their best performance at the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, winning 27 golds and 58 medals.
The team’s Asian Games deputy chief Kosei Inoue believes Japan were not far out of contention in many events in Hangzhou.
“If we look closely at our results, a lot of the silver medallists were close to getting gold medals, and the bronze medallists were close to getting silver,” he said.
“We want to improve that at the next Olympics by providing support to all the athletes, so that they can upgrade their medals with better performances.”
Japan won their final gold on Sunday in the men’s team kata karate competition. Other winners on the last day were Chinese Taipei’s Gu Shiau-shuang, who retained the women’s 50kg kumite title she won in Jakarta, and the Chinese artistic swimming team.
Ogata said China, who won 383 medals overall, were too strong on home soil in many sports.
“If you’re analysing why we won less than last time, China dominated and India did surprisingly well, so that left us with fewer medals to win,” he said.
India registered their best Asiad haul, winning 28 golds and 107 medals. Their previous best was 16 golds and 70 medals from 2018.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “What a historic achievement for India at the Asian Games! The entire nation is overjoyed that our incredible athletes have brought home the highest ever total of 107 medals, the best ever performance in the last 60 years.” AFP, REUTERS, XINHUA
