Dubai (UAE) – 25 April 2024:
In the second day’s evening session, Chinese sprinters erased two long-standing 100m records from the record books in the 21st Asian U20 Athletics Championships.
Keli Zeng (17) ran a marvelous semi-final race in the evening, stopping the clock at 10.15 secs. This fantastic time removed his fellow countryman Li Tao’s championship record of 10.26 secs, which he created in the inaugural edition of the Asian junior championships 38 years ago! It created further anticipation when the athletes lined up for the final later.
In the finals, Keli reacted late to come out from his blocks, perhaps as a caution to avoid making any false start. However, he was quick enough to overtake two athletes from Hong Kong China, Chan Yat Lok and Kwok Chun Ting at the halfway mark to win the race in 10.19 secs. Chan (10.41s) and Kwok (10.46s) took the other two spots. Keli was a silver medalist in the Asian U18 championships at Tashkent last year.
In the women’s race, Chen Yujie (15), who won the Chinese National Students Games last year in Nanning with a time of 11.43 secs, bettered Sri Lankan Damayanthi Dharsha’s 30-year-old meet mark of 11.42 secs with a brilliant 11.32 secs to win the gold. Like Keli, Chen also had a late start but managed to increase her tempo midway to push Vietnam’s Tran Thi (11.40s) to the silver spot, while Misaki Morimoto of Japan was a distant third in 11.79 secs.
Two more meet marks fell this evening. Quarter-miler Ailixier Wumaier clocked a personal best time of 45.53 secs to win the Junior Men’s 400m, eventually removing Sri Lankan Aruna Dharshana’s 45.79s from the record books. China’s Li Yiqing (46.61s) and Indian Aman Choudhary (47.53s) filled the other places on the podium. Uzbekistan’s Hukmova Jonbibi was the women’s winner in 55.00 secs.
Japan took the 5000m gold with a record:
Indians Vinod Singh and Gaurav Bhosale led the 5,000m while the Japanese duo of Orita Sota and Iida Kaito remained with them throughout the race. Vinod was leading at the “bell” when Sota started charging him and taking over the Indian with 200m to finish. Similarly, Kaito began challenging the other Indian runner, Bhosale, for the bronze position.
Ultimately, Sota won the race in 14:08.71, ahead of Vinod (14:09.44) and Kaito (14:09.63). All three medalists bettered the previous championship record of 14:14.65, held by Qatar’s Shebto Moustafa Ahmed since 2004.
Failure of defending champions allowed new ones to emerge:
A couple of defending Asian junior champions, who failed to live up to their expectations, paved the way for the new champions to emerge on the second day of competitions.
The first to fall into this category was Indian shot putter Siddharth Choudhary. Siddharth, the Yecheon gold medalist, was way below his personal best and landed in third place here today. However, his teammate Anurag Singh Kaler rescued Team India by annexing the gold with a heave of 19.23m. Korean Park Sihoon, the Yecheon bronze medalist, rose to the silver position this time with an identical 19.23m. However, he had to be satisfied with second place as the Indian shot putter logged several other marks better than he did.
In the women’s steeplechase, defending champion Dilshoda Usmonova of Uzbekistan failed to retain her title. India’s newly emerging distance running star Ekta Dey ran with the Uzbek runner until the last two laps when she snatched the lead from her. Usmonova made a desperate effort to catch the Indian but could not succeed. Ekta Dey got the gold in 10:31.95, nearly ten seconds ahead of her rival.
Interestingly, the Indians took the junior men’s steeplechase title as well. With their medal contender Sharuk Khan, the Yecheon silver medalist became a non-starter Iraq’s Mustafa Al-Khazaali was expected to win the race. However, the second Indian on the start list, Ranvir Kumar Singh, surprised the audience with an incredible run to win in 9:22.67. Al-Khazaali clocked 9:28.84 for the silver.
India also won another gold medal through long jumper Pavana Nagaraj, who leaped a personal best 6.32m today. Japan’s Nono Tsuneishi was runner-up with 6.21m.
Uzbekistan’s Nodir Norboev, the Yecheon silver medalist in the decathlon, won the grueling ten-event competition, tabulating 7,122 points. Ivan Sening, the Kazakh who won the Asian Youth title in Tashkent last year, secured a bronze behind South Korea’s Nam Hyunbin.
Earlier in the morning, Chinese race walker Pang Liping covered 10,000m in 47:22.63 as her teammate Baima Zhuoma (47:36.47) and India’s Aarti (47:45.51) took the minor placings. China got another gold in the morning through its discus thrower Han Bingyang (56.35m).
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
