Yukihiro Kitaoka came in a distant second to Ji Young Jun of South Korea in the men's marathon at the Asian Games on Saturday.
Ji broke away from 2006 champion and pre-race favorite Mubarak Hassan Shami of Qatar with about 5 kilometers to go and crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 11.11 seconds.
Kitaoka clocked 2:12:46 in only the second marathon of his career after overtaking a tiring Shami, who finished seven seconds further back.
The little-known 28-year-old runner, who made his marathon debut this past March with a fourth-place finish in a domestic meet, extended Japan's medal streak in the men's marathon to nine Games.