China ascertained the Champion Status once again, but this time narrowly, when its athletes won 12 gold against Japan’s 11 in the 2014 edition of the Asian Junior Championships held at Taipei Municipal Stadium.
As many as three championship records have been established in the four-day meet. Iran’s Mohammad Hossein Abareghi clocked 20.63 secs in the men’s 200m qualifying round for the new record. Later, he went on to win the final in 20.69 secs. Japan’s Taio Kanai clocked an impressive 13.33 secs in 110m hurdles, a record that remains intact till now.
In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, Nguyen Thi Oanh from Vietnam set a new mark of 10:27.29, a first for the country in distance running.
However, the amazing race came in the women’s 5,000m, where in a rare “dead heat,” Japan’s Maki Izumida and Kyrgyzstan’s Daria Maslova locked in an epic battle and crossed the finish line together. Both athletes returned an identical 16:18.345, resulting in them sharing the top spot together and each receiving a gold medal for this honour.
Japan’s Kaori Kawazoe won the gold medal in the 10,000m walk at 50:38.05, while the Kazakh twin sisters Diana Aidossova and Dana Aidossova took the other two medals behind her.
Chinese long jumper Lin Qing successfully defended his title with a leap of 7.99m, 3 cm farther than his 2012 effort. Another athlete who retained the title from Colombo was the Qatari hammer thrower Ashraf Amgad El-Seify.
2016 Ho Chi Minh City: Sado took surprise gold and the record
Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh city organised the Asian Junior championships in 2016, where two new championship records were established.
India’s Neeraj Chopra, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem and Japan’s Junya Sado entered the javelin throw arena to make a podium finish. The Japanese surprised the rest of the field to win the event after establishing a new record of 77.97m on his last-round throw. Chopra (77.60m) and Nadeem with a national junior record of 73.40m took the following two places behind Sado.
Interestingly, Neeraj set an Asian Junior Record of 82.23m while winning the South Asian Games in Guwahati earlier that year and was a pre-event favourite here.
However, the Indian won the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz the following month (July), and the Pakistani thrower became the first South Asian athlete to breach the 90m mark while winning the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham years later.
Japan’s Chika Mukai accounted for the only other record with 10:21.04 in steeplechase.
Indian middle distance runner Lili Das made it a double by winning 800-1500m golds. Incidentally, the boys’ 800-1500m titles also favoured the Indians.
2018 Gifu: Japan outshined China at home
When the Japanese organised the championships in Gifu, they halted the Chinese monopoly by taking the “numero uno” spot on the medals tally with 14 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze medals. China got only 11 gold medals this time. India (5) and Chinese Taipei (4) were the other teams to win more titles, while Sri Lanka and Qatar took three each.
As many as 437 athletes from 35 nations took part in the above edition in Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium, in which six new meet marks were created.
Sri Lankan quarter-miler Aruna Dharshana clinched the gold medal with an excellent time of 45.79 secs. Indonesian sprinter Lalu Muhammad Zohri clocked a noteworthy 10.27 secs in 100m, just one-hundredth of a second slower than Li Tao’s meet mark established in the inaugural edition 1986 at the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka set a meet mark in 3,000m (9:04.36) and her teammate Yoshida Yuiri in the 100m hurdles (13.45 secs).
Keeping up the Iranian tradition, Hossein Rasouli sent the discus to a new distance of 62.29m. With it, Iran matches the Chinese in taking the fifth gold in this event in the above championships.
China’s Ma Li covered 10,000m race walk in 45:20.59 while Japanese 4 x 400m relay quartet clocked 3:38.20 for another record.
2023 Yecheon: Heneida vaulted new heights as Japan remained on the top
The coronavirus pandemic affected the sporting world, and the Asian junior championships scheduled for 2020 were also cancelled. The championships returned in full swing after a hiatus of five years in the South Korean city of Yecheon.
Qatar’s Seifeldin Md Abdelsalam Heneida established the only meet mark in this edition as he vaulted 5.50 metres. His teammate Ismail Doudai Abakar clocked a personal best of 46.18 secs to win the 400m.
Team Japan repeated with another 14 gold medals to remain at the top of the medals tally. India improved its performance with 6 gold medals. The best performer from the Indian camp was Rezoana Mallick Heena, who won the 400m in 53.32 secs. It was indeed a notable feat for the Indian, as she won her second continental title in five weeks after taking the Asian Youth gold in Tashkent.
Japan’s Sonata Nagashima had a 3000-5000m double. The Sri Lanks won the inaugural 4 x 400m Mixed Relay title. Sunil Kumar won the decathlon in a first for India with a personal best of 7,003 points.
Japan’s Kaito Kuroki (10.37 secs) and China’s Xiong Shiqi (11.62s) took the sprint titles in their respective sections.
Middle distance runner Tharushi Dilsara Dissanayaka became the first Sri Lankan athlete to win the women’s 800m gold in these championships.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
Photos: AAA/LOC Archives
