Tanaka, representing Suzuki, claimed the gold medal with a total of 5,920 points, while Kajiki, of Nojima, took silver with 5,673 points. It marked Japan’s first-ever gold medal in the heptathlon at the Asian Games and the first time the country had occupied the top two positions on the podium in the event.
The competition concluded with the 800 metres, where Tanaka produced a strong performance to finish first in 2:15.61. Her overall score ranks as the fifth-best performance in Japanese history and represents her second-best personal mark. Kajiki also recorded the second-best score of her career.
Tanaka had been in fourth place after the first day of competition but improved steadily across the remaining disciplines to overhaul the field. Kajiki, who started strongly by topping the 100 metres hurdles, maintained her position near the top throughout and held on for silver.
The result carries particular significance for Japanese athletics. While Japan had previously won gold in the older five-event format decades ago, no Japanese athlete had stood atop the heptathlon podium since the event became a seven-discipline competition. The previous best result was a silver medal won by Yuki Nakata at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
Both athletes expressed satisfaction with their performances on home soil. Tanaka highlighted the opportunity to compete in front of large crowds in Japan, while Kajiki noted her delight at sharing the podium with her compatriot in her first major international multi-event medal.
The bronze medal went to Kazakhstan’s Alina Chistyakova.
The Japanese 1-2 provided one of the standout moments of the athletics programme in Nagoya and underlined the growing strength of multi-event competition in the host nation.