Dubai (UAE) – 24 April 2024:
Two boys from India’s Uttar Pradesh state met their expectations, taking the first two places in the Javelin Throw on the opening day of the 21st Asian U20 Athletics Championships this evening.
Dipanshu Sharma, who will turn 18 tomorrow, made his ambitions clear right from the beginning of the competition. Leading a field of five since the opening round throw of 69.29m, he unleashed the implement to 70.29m in the third round, which was enough to nail the gold in his favour. Dipanshu, who had a personal best of 71.21m, registered while winning the junior category in the Indian Open Throws competition in Patiala last month, was expecting a good fight for the top spot from South Korean Jeong Jun-Seok. The Korean thrower had a PB of 73.11m from his gold-winning National Games title, which he won two years ago in Ulsan. However, Jun-Seok was not in his best form this evening and had to be satisfied with a bronze medal after logging 65.32m.
Incidentally, the Indians were 1-2 in this event as Rohan Yadav (17), who usually finished second behind Dipanshu, did so after improving his PB to 70.03m. Dipanshu was the third Indian to win the Asian junior gold in this event after Satbir Singh Saran (1992) and Ramandeep Singh (1996), the two occasions when India hosted the biennial championships in New Delhi. In the last edition at Yecheon, Shivam Lokhakare won a silver medal.
Qatar and Uzbekistan earned two golds each:
Athletes from Qatar were lucky today as they won two gold medals at the expense of the Indians. Djibrine Adoum Ahmat, who finished fourth in Yecheon, had only one valid mark in the discus throw–the first final of the day in the morning. He would not have imagined that his third-round throw, measured 54.80m, would fetch him gold today. India’s Ritik, who entered the fray with a PB of 56.32m was a clear favourite to win the event. But things went the other way as Ritik lost momentum after opening with a nondescript 49.97m on his first attempt and concluded his series with just 53.01m in the last round. Thus, he missed a golden opportunity today.
Similarly, the Indians lost another gold to yet another Qatari in the evening. Priyanshu, who led the 1500m until the last few metres before the finish, narrowly missed the top place to Hatim Aitoulghazi at the post of 3:50.76 to 3:50.85. It was Hatim’s first-ever international medal.
The field events once again proved lucky for Uzbekistan. They started their campaign with Barnokhon Sayfullaeva, who successfully defended her title in the high jump. Later in the evening, Khushnoza Shavkatova did a similar act to retain her title in the triple jump. Shavkatova jumped 13.33m for the gold. Sri Lanka’s Herath Mudiyanselage was a surprise silver medalist with 13.01m.
Li outsmart the Japanese to win the gold:
China’s Li Yaxuan ran a tactical race to win the 3,000m from the Japanese. Running neck-to-neck with Narumi Okumoto and Nozomi Kondo in the initial stages of the race, the Chinese runner who earlier won the 800m gold in the Asian U18 championships in Tashkent last year broke away from the rest of the field to take a considerable lead in the waning stages to cross the finish line in 9 minutes 12.79 secs. Okumoto (9:25.19) and Kondo (9:38.91) went home with the other two medals. Interestingly, Li was the first Chinese runner to win the above race after a gap of 22 years, as Zhang Yuhong won it in 2002 in Bangkok.
Asian Athletics is introducing a “Replacement Policy” at this championship, in which the best non-qualifying athletes will be made to wait separately after their qualifying rounds and offered the opportunity to take any vacancy arising out of the withdrawal of any qualified athlete before their respective finals.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
