Bangkok, 23 June- Hassan Taftian, 22 years old fastest Iranian runner bounced back from hamstring injury which ruled him out of Asian Championship last month to set new Asian Grand Prix record of 10.24s in the 1st leg of AAA Asian Grand Prix Athletics held at National Stadium in Bangkok. Hassan, former Asian junior champion is upbeat on the remaining two legs where he is hopeful to amend timings further down. Chinese Pan Xinyue clocked 10.44s to grab second spot while Calvin Kang representing Singapore took third place in 10.56s
In the men’s javelin throw, fresh from Wuhan win, Asian champion Huang Shih-Feng of Chinese Taipei launched another 80m plus throw (4th time in 2015) to pocket $1500. Ma Qun of China improved on his Wuhan performance to 78.19m to finish on the second place, pushing teammate Li Yingchang to third place who threw 72.92m.
Asian champion Inderjeet Singh of India fell short of 1cm to equal fellow Indian Navpreet Singh’s Asian Grand prix record of 19.84m. Inderjeet dominated the event with a lead of over a meter to the nearest rival. Chinese duo Wang Guangfu ( 18.82m) and Guo Yanxing ( 18.79m) finished on the second and third place respectively.
Close contest in the men’s long jump stretched to the last round when Asian championship bronze medallist Tang Gongchen of China jumped to 7.79m to snatch lead from India’s Ankit Sharma who was leading with 7.78m till then. Ankit tried to reply Tang’s jump but in the process got himself injured and finished on the second place. Another Chinese Li Chengbin finished on the third place with a jump of 7.56m.
Iranian Keyvan Ghanbarzadeh and Syrian Ghazal Majd Eddin both cleared 2.26m in the high jump but Keyvan was declared winner on the count back. Wang Chen of China finished on the third place with 2.23m clearance.
Viktoriya Zyabkina, Asian champion over 200m and silver medallist in 100m of Kazakhstan emerged clear winner in the 100m with a performance of 11.36s. Viktoriya has recently set new personal best performance of 11.20s in the Kazakhstan National Championship. Asian junior champion Liang Xiaojing, 19 years old sprinter from China set new personal best performance of 11.52s to claim second place while India’s Srabani Nanda too set new personal best performance of 11.58s to take third place.
Bangkok is very familiar place for Yuliya Rakhmanova, 23 years old runner from Kazakhstan as she spends months training in Bangkok and this comfort has helped her to beat Asian leaders in the Women 400m. Yuliya could not improve her personal best of 52.61s, set a week ago in Almaty but her 53.26s was enough to seal win over Quac Thi Lan (53.29s) of Vietnam and Machithra Poovamma (53.51s) of India.
In the women’s 800m, late surge from Nimali W.K.L.A. of Srilanka brought her victory over Vietnam’s Do Thi Thao clocking 2:07.18s against 2:07.38s of Do Thi Thao. India’s Gomathi Mrimuth finished on the third place in 2:07.40s.
Anastasiya Pilipenko, Asian silver medallist in 100m hurdles set new season best performance of 13.25s to win women 100m hurdles final. Wang Dou of China secured second place in 13.40s while India’s Gayathri Govindraj grabbed third place in 13.72s.
Fresh from the victory in the SEA Games, Wanida Boonwan of Thailand sealed another win, equalling season best of 1.86m in the women high jump final. Wang Lin of China cleared 1.83m for second place while Iranian Sepideh Tavakoly Nik finished on the third place with a jump of 1.79m.
Weng Chunxia of China joined 60 plus club in the Women’s discus throw with a personal best performance of 60.82m and a win. Feng Bin also from China threw 58.70m for second place while home favourite Subenrat Insaeng could not deliver big distance and ended on the third place with 57.10m.
2nd leg of Asian Grand Prix 2015 will be held on 25th June from 2:30pm onwards at Asian stadium of Thammasat University Sports Complex located in the outskirt of Bangkok.
