Naturalized Kenyan Shadrack Koech finished 7th in the marathon race at the Asian Games in Japan with a result of 2 hours 14 minutes 7 seconds. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The Kazakhstani distance runner fell four minutes behind the champion, Japan's Ichitaka Namasita. Had Koech run close to his personal best (2:04.04), he would have won gold.
So far, Kazakhstan's athletics team has only collected silver and bronze. Shadrack did not reach those either.
🥇 1. Ichitaka YAMASITA (Japan) – 2:10.49
In the women's marathon, Kazakhstani athletes did not participate.
The XX Summer Asian Games officially opened on September 19 and will conclude on October 4. Athletes from 45 countries are competing for 460 sets of medals. Kazakhstan's team at the 2026 Asian Games includes 558 athletes in 35 sports.
On the first day of the Games, Kazakhstan won four gold medals. The champions were cyclists Rinata Sultanova and Alexey Lutsenko, as well as karatekas Zholaman Bigabyl and Sofya Berultseva. The fifth gold was added to the team's tally by MMA fighter Yerkingali Burkutalin. The sixth by his teammate in mixed martial arts, Kadyrbek Shynbaev. On September 23, Lutsenko became a two-time champion of the 2026 Asian Games. The eighth gold medal was won on September 24 by rowers Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin in the men's coxless pairs event.
After six days of the Games, Kazakhstan was in fourth place in the unofficial medal standings.