Japan captures 21 top-8 finishes halfway through Games

February 16, 1998

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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow

Japan captures 21 top-8 finishes halfway through Games

Only nine days into the Nagano Olympics, Japan has had 21 top eight finishes to tie its performance for the whole of the 1994 Lillehammer Games -- Japan's best-ever showing in the winter games, the head of the Japanese delegation said Monday.

''The Japanese delegation is very happy with the results,'' Japan's delegation leader Yushiro Yagi told a press conference, adding the Japanese team had received a boost from Hiroyasu Shimizu who won a gold medal in speed skating on the third day of the Games.

''A gold medal in (speed) skating was our primary goal for the success of the Games,'' said Yagi, secretary general of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC).

Through Sunday, Japan had won three gold medals, one silver, and three bronze in the Nagano Games that opened Feb. 7.

Yagi also noted that freestyle skiing's Tae Satoya became the first Japanese woman to win a gold in the winter Olympics, while Kazuyoshi Funaki brought the first large hill ski jumping gold to Japan.

The delegation chief also said the Japanese medals will not end there.

''We must win ski jumping's team event,'' Yagi said. ''We will definitely add one more medal to our collection.'' (Kyodo News)

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