Japan’s Chisato Fukushima was the star of Guangzhou Asiad as she delivered a ‘sprint double’. But four years later it looks difficult for her to ‘repeat’ the golden act as athletes from a variety of nations coming out with excellent performances this season. In the Asian championships at Pune last year, Wei Yongli (China) took the title in 100m while Kazakh sprinter Viktoriya Zyabkina clinched the 200m gold. Zyabkina’s colleague Olga Safronova is leading the Asian lists in 100m (11.23 secs) and 200m (22.85s) this year. To everyone’s surprise even Indian sprinter Sharadha Narayana listed second in 100m with her excellent 11.39 secs clocked three months ago while Yongli a close third behind in 11.40s. Zyabkina and Yongli once again taking top rankings in 200m behind Safronova with their season best timings of 23.22 and 23.25 secs respectively.
The 400m will be a two-horse race between Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya (51.32 secs) and Indian M.R. Poovamma (51.73). Adekoya, formerly a Nigerian citizen, recently won a bronze medal in the IAAF Continental Cup at Marrakech in 400m hurdles – her favourite event – as part of the Asia-Pacific team.
