Dubai (UAE) – 26 April 2024:It was an evening filled with excellent performances. Two Qatari athletes mainly caught the spectators’ attention. Oumar Doudai Abakar, the silver medalist in the previous edition of the championship in Yecheon, ran a thrilling 110m hurdles final. He was the last to come out from the blocks but quickly caught China’s Chen Yuanjiang after 60 metres.
Yuanjiang, who won the Chinese National Students Games last year, did not yield to any pressure and was determined to win the race. However, Abakar surged fast after the last hurdle in time to dip at the “post” and narrowly edged out the Chinese to the second spot. Abakar’s winning time of 13.24 secs erased the Championship Record and improved this year’s “World Leading” time for the U20 category. The previous meet mark of 13.33 secs was in the name of Japan’s Taio Kanai since 2014, and the earlier world junior lead for 2024 was 13.27 secs by US hurdler Mason Dossett, clocked on March 30.
Yuajing posted a personal best of 13.26 secs for the silver. Japan’s Hojo Yuki was a distant third in 13.74 secs.
Another Qatari athlete who excelled on the penultimate day’s competition was the reigning champion in pole vault, Seifeldin Mohamed Abdelsalam. He started his campaign when only three other athletes were left in the fray. India’s Dev Kumar Meena claimed the bronze by scaling to 5.10m but failed at 5.20m. Japan’s Yoshida Rikuya settled for silver at 5.25m.
Seifeldin scaled 5.51m and bettered his record from Yecheon by 1 cm. Having logged his personal best of 5.55m earlier this year during the Asian Indoor Championships in Teheran, Seifeldin went to try 5.60m this evening but knocked the bar in all his three attempts at that height.
Chinese beat India for the Mixed Relay Gold:
Yet another Championship Record was broken on Friday evening. India was the favourite team to win the 4 x 400m Mixed Relay. They expected some challenge from last year’s champion, Sri Lanka, besides Kazakhstan. However, the Chinese quartet, which clocked 3:38.57 in the qualifying rounds, emerged as a surprise winner in the final. The Indian Team, which received thundering support from the stands, had the disadvantage of missing their top runner, Bapi Hansda, due to visa issues and thus finished second. Both China (3:22.46) and India (3:34.86) improved the previous record of 3:25.41 held by Sri Lanka. The Lankans finished third today with a time of 3:28.18.
China started its gold rush in the morning by taking the first two spots in the 10,000m racewalk. Ni Zhi (42:47.42) and Wang Jiaqi (42:49.17) finished ahead of Japan’s Umeda Kazuhiro (43:14.85). An hour later, Xu Hetong triple-jumped 15.85m. China also had 1-2 in the junior women’s hammer throw, with Zhang Jiale (66.79m) taking the gold from her teammate Ling Fang (62.35m). Ding Zhuhui (15,82m) and Lin Jiaxin (15.61m) performed similar acts in the evening in shot put. Liu Yinglan annexed the gold in 200m, clocking 22.94 secs before their mixed relay delivered its best, the last event on the track for the day.
Chinese Taipei opened its medal account through its women javelin throwers Chu Pin-Hsun (52.21m) and Tai Yu-Chin (52.01m), who took the top two spots in this event.
Japan’s Shota Fuchigami clocked an exciting 49.97 secs to win the 400m hurdles. Yecheon silver medalist Nazanin Fatemeh Eidiyankakhaki put on an improved display to win the junior women’s race in 58.86 secs.
Japan also won another gold through Yuri Nishida, who overcame the strong challenge from India’s Laxita Sandilea to win the 800m at the waning stages of the race in 2:06.55 to 2:07.10,
Thailand’s Wirayut Daenkhanob won the junior men’s 200m in 20.84 secs. However, as he finished fourth, his teammate and Yecheon silver medalist Sarawut Nuansi missed the podium this time. Hong Kong China’s Magnus Prostur Johannsson clocked 20.92 secs for the silver.
India won a gold and one bronze in the hammer throw. Harshit Kumar sent the ball and chain to 66.70m for the gold, while Iran’s Mahdi Haftcheshmeh claimed his second successive silver medal in this event as he did in Yecheon after missing the gold by just 6 cm.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
