21st Asian Athletics Championships – day 2
Ogunode powered to 9.91 secs Asian Record in the Final
Wuhan, China – 4 June 2015:
As expected Femi Ogunode improved his continental mark in the men’s 100m final as he sprinted to a supersonic 9.91 secs (+1.8) to win the Gold ahead of home favourite Zhang Peimeng (10.15) and Iranian Reza Ghazemi (10.19) on the second evening of the Asian championships here.
Japan’s Chisato Fukushima takes the women’s title with a wind-aided (+2.5 m/s) 11.23 secs. It was Fukushima’s second gold in 100m at Asian championships. Her first victory came way back in 2009 at Guangzhou. She also won a silver medal in this event at the last edition in Pune, two years ago.
Kazakhstan’s Viktoryia Zyabkina (11.34) and China’s Wei Yongli (11.46) were the other medalists in this event.
Double for Betlhem and Al-Garni
UAE runner Betlhem Desalegn made it a double by winning the 5000m today (15:25.15). She had won the 1500m on the opening day. Her teammate Alia Mohamed Saeed (15:28.74) and Kyrghztan’s Daria Masalova (15:42.82) went home with silver and bronze medals in this event.
In what is considered as the Race of the Day, Qatari runner Mohamed Al-Garni become the second runner to secure a “golden double” in the ongoing championships with a season’s best 13:34.47. Bahrain’s Albert Rop settled with a silver (13:35.26) while India’s G Lakshmanan took the bronze with a Personal Best 13:36.62. Lakshmanan, employed with Indian Army, improved his previous best by almost 14 seconds for his first ever international medal!
Clean sweep by Chinese discus throwers
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Hosts China made a clean sweep in women’s discus throw with Su Xinyue taking the top spot by hurling the disc to 63.90m by successfully defending her title from 2013. Tan Jian (62.97) and Lu Xiaoxin (62.30) accompanied her to the podium in a closely contested competition.
Former Asian junior champion Zhang Wei won the pole vault by scaling 5.60m. There were four other vaulters with 5.50m clearing today at Wuhan. Seito Yamamoto (Japan) and Huang Bokai (China) were lucky to make it to the podium with their quick clearances on the earlier heights.
Long jumper Gao Xinglong inflated the Chinese gold collection by leaping to 7.96m. Ted Hooper, recently migrated from the United States to Chinese-Taipei, jumped 7.80m—just one cm ahead of another local star Tang Gongchen for the silver.
Tajikistan’s triple Asian Games victor Dilshod Nazarov made it easy in the hammer throw with a moderate 77.68m. Qatar’s Ashraf Amjad Al-Saifi (76.03) and Chinese Wan Yong (73.40) filled the other places on podium.
Chinese sprint relay quartets secured the gold medals in 4x100m with the men taking it in 39.04 secs. In the morning heats they clocked 39.02 secs. The women clocked 43.10 secs for the top spot.
Poovamma, Liksy provide silver lining for Indians
India’s Machettira Raju Poovamma repeated her Pune show by securing a silver medal in women’s 400m clocking 53.07 secs. The gold in this event went to China’s Yang Huizhen (52.37) and the bronze to Kazakh runner Anastasiya Kudinova (53.41).
Poovamma was leading after yesterday’s heats with 52.94 scs but could not find improve her time in the Final today.
However the India’s Asian Games bronze medalist Arokya Rajeev could manage only a seventh place finish in the men’s race.
Qatar’s new found youngster Abdalelah Haroun set a World Junior Leading time of the year (44.68) for an upset victory over the Asian record-holder and defending champion Youssef Al-Masrahi of Saudi Arabia (45.15). Masrahi’s continental mark stands at 44.43 secs. Kentaro Sato of Japn was the bronze medalist in a distant 46.09 secs.
Indian heptathlete Liksy Joseph, trailing at sixth place at the end of the opening day, long jumped 6.19m today to move up to 3rd place. Although she could not do well in javelin throw, Liksy powered to victory in the last of her seven events in 800m with a time of 2:13.44 and that brought her the silver medal with personal best 5,554 points, while teammate and former Asian junior champion Purnima Hembram got the bronze (5511). Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Voronina was the winner here with 5689 points.
Taiwan’s 2011 Asian bronze medalist Chen Chieh is leading in the men’s 400m hurdles qualifiers with 49.89 secs while Asian Games double gold medalist Kemi Adekoya (Bahrain) leads the women’s with an outstanding 55.84 secs.
Hosts China continued to lead the medal tally with 10 gold, 5 silver and 8 bronze medals. Qatar (4-1-0) and United Arab Emirates (2-1-0) are in the next two spots.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for AAA
