C’ships a success for Japan only off the track

A crowd roar “like having tinnitus” at Tokyo’s National Stadium has made up for Japan’s muted performances at their home World Athletics Championships, four years after empty stands greeted the pandemic-troubled Olympics there.

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The host nation won only two medals, claiming men and women's race walk bronzes.

Lifting the gloom has been the atmosphere in the stadium, with mostly sold-out crowds making up for lost time after being locked out of the Tokyo Olympics because of Covid-19.

Hiroki Yanagita, a member of the Japan men’s 4x100m relay team, said it was “electrifying” to be running in front of almost 60,000 screaming fans.

“Everyone has been saying that the noise in the stadium is like an earthquake, like having tinnitus, and I finally understood that for myself,” he said.

“It felt great to hear that noise as I was running and it allowed me to give a performance that was greater than myself.”

The atmosphere could not have been more different from the Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed a year because of the pandemic.