The eleventh edition of the championships was held in Ipoh, Malaysia, in June 2004. The Chinese athletes once again proved their mettle by winning 16 out of 43 events contested. Twenty-one out of 35 participating teams won at least a medal.
Hosts Malaysia won their lone gold through Fauziah Abdul Razak in women’s 200m. She clocked 24.49 secs to attain the top spot ahead of Lebanese sprinter Greta Taslakian, who finished with a silver after setting a new national record of 24.65 secs.
In a similar act, Japan’s Asami Tanno registered a new national mark of 52.88s for silver in 400m behind Chinese quarter-miler Tang Xiaoyin, who clocked a new meet record 52.66 secs for the gold.
Qatari distance runner Omar Moussa Obaid garnered a unique distance double by winning gold in the 10,000m (30:31.22) and 3,000m steeplechase (8:33.39 meet record).
Saudi hurdlers Mubarak Al-Mabadi (110m hurdles) and Ibrahim Al-Hamaidi (400m) returned distinct victories in their respective events.
Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi opened with a win in the junior (1.75 kg) discus throw, a fist in his illustrious chapter. He went on to dominate the Asian (senior) scenario thereafter.
Macau 2006: The rise of Central Asian high jumpers
Macau, the Special Administration Region of the People’s Republic of China, hosted this edition.
The Chinese won a whopping 23 gold medals out of 43 events contested. However, the championships witnessed the emergence of women high jumpers from the central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Svetlana Radzivil took the spotlight by sailing over 1.90m to pocket the gold and scripted a new championship record. Kazakh Yekateria Yevseyeva (1.88) and Uzbek Nadiya Dusanova (1.84) complete the podium.
In the hurdles and the pole vault, three other championship records have been rewritten, all by Chinese athletes. Huang Hao stopped the clock at 13.64 secs in 110m hurdles, while Yang Yansheng (5.30m) and Zhang Yingning (4.20m) erased the pole vault marks in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively.
Jakarta 2008: The BIG LEAP from Yongfeng
The Asian Junior Championships held at Senayan in Central Jakarta witnessed two new meet marks. One of them was an epic long jump by China’s Weng Yongfeng. The Chinese jumper made a gigantic leap of 8.05m that astonished the fans and won the title.
The second meet mark also fell to another Chinese as race walker Yu Miao covered the 10,000m RW in 46 minutes 17.44 seconds to erase the four-year-old record of Japan’s Fumi Mitsumura (46:58.96).
Kazakhstan’s Marina Podkorytova clocked 10:57.59 to win the inaugural 3,000m steeplechase for junior women.
Athletes from Hong Kong won two golds through sprinter Lai Chun Ho, who clocked 10.43 secs to win the 100m and high jumper Jessica Fung Wai Yee, who set a national record 1.78m for the second gold.
Another team that dominated proceedings was Thailand, with four victories. Thai sprinter Jinthara Seangdee made it a golden double by winning 100-200m and annexed another by taking her national 4 x 100m relay team to victory. On the boys’ side, their 4 x 400m logged their first-ever victory, and that continued their domination in this event in a couple of other editions.
Time and again, the Arab athletes ruled the distance running. Qatar’s Charles Koech (1500-5000m) and Bahrain’s Majid Saleh Bashir (10,000m & 3000m steeplechase) made it a double.
Japanese hurdlers and pole vaulter Yuya Ariake (5.20m) registered notable victories.
Hanoi 2010: Barshim defied gravity to fly high
Mutaz Essa Barshim emerged as a force to reckon with in the high-jumping arena, sailing over heights that only the Chinese Zhu Jianhua had touched earlier.
The young Qatari easily emerged as the Best Athlete of the Championships after his top-notching 2.31m on board.
Thai sprinter Supachai Chimdee was the only other athlete to set a meet mark in this edition as he timed 20.80 secs running against a head-wind.
China’s Jiang Shan took junior women’s 100-200m golds, the latter with a personal best 24.04 secs clocking. Another girl who attracted the attention was Iraq’s Kolestane Mahmood Ieso, the 400-800m winner. Chinese thrower Gu Siyu also achieved a “double” by taking on the shot put and discus throw titles.
Qatar’s Mohamed Al-Garni snatched 800-1500m golds in the junior men section.
Colombo 2012: Ashraf steals the show
Athletes from the Gulf nation have dominated in the middle-distance races in the recent past, and they did so this time as well. However, the performance that amazed everyone came from the throwing arena through hammer thrower Ashraf Amgad Elseify. The Qatari came into prominence when he established a world youth best of 85.26m in Rhede, Germany, last year with a 5 Kg hammer.
He arrived at the Sri Lankan capital as a Gulf junior champion in Al-Kuwait, where he created a new Asian junior record and world season-leading 79.67m. On the third day of competition here, he improved his mark with the 6 kg implement to 80.85m. Indian junior champion Sukhdev Singh finished way behind with his 65.25m.
“I am confident of this victory and now set my sight on the world junior record of 82.97m,” revealed the 17-year-old Ashraf, who is now preparing to conquer at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona next month (10-15 July).
Other Qatari winners include Hamza Driouch in the 1500m, Mohamed Hasim Salah in the steeplechase, and Barshim Muamer Aissa in the High Jump.
Lankans win gold medals after 18 years:
Hosts Sri Lanka delivered exemplary conduct at the championships. More than five hundred athletes from 34 nations participated in the four-day meet.
The island nation was joyous when their quarter-milers impressed with two titles at 400m through Dulaj Madusanka (47.36) and Shiwanthi Kumari Ratnayake (55.91) in junior men and junior women’s categories, respectively. Madusanka beat Kimura Kazushi of Japan, while Ratnayake piped Indian Priyanka Mondal to second place.
It was Sri Lanka’s first-ever gold medal in 400m, and the nation’s athletes stood top of the podium after an eighteen-year wait. In 1994 in Jakarta, two of the great stars of yesteryears, Damayanthi Darsha (100m) and Susanthika Jayasinghe (200m), brought a gold medal each to Sri Lanka.
Hassan and Ching-Hsien fastest
Iranian Hassan Taftian piped Xie Zhenye of China in the title clash for the fastest athlete to win the junior men’s 100m in 10.49 secs. The Chinese, however, clinched the 200m dash on the final day, wherein Hassan finished third.
Similarly, Liao Ching-Hsien of Chinese Taipei took the junior women’s crown in a photo-finish from China’s Lin Huijun in one-hundredth of a second (11.97 to 11.98). Huijun went on to win the 200 while muscle cramps shattered the Taiwanese dream of taking a double as she limped out after 120 metres in that race.
Almost all days, strong head-winds prevent the athletes from delivering better marks in sprints and jumps.
(To be continued)
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
Photos: AAA/LOC Archives, Wikipedia
