21st Asian Athletics Championships
Ogunode sends early warning in 100m while Chinese commenced their gold rush on opening day
Wuhan, China – 3 June 2015: Hosts China acquired half of the Gold medals at stake on the opening day of 21st Asian Athletics Championships which commenced here at Wuhan Sports Centre today.
The athletes from Champion Nation were on top of the podium in four out of eight finals decided on Wednesday.
However the opening day’s attractions include an excellent 100m run by the newest Asian record-holder in that event, Femi Ogunode of Qatar, in the qualifying rounds. Having commenced with a 10.12 secs in the morning heats, Ogunode went on to clock an impressive 9.97s (+1.1) to win the semi-finals in the evening—a time that erased country-mate Samul Francis’s 2007 performance of 9.99 secs from the record books and also put him as an Asian Leader in that event for this season. Francis also qualified for tomorrow’s final with a 10.29 secs clocking behind Ogunode in the semis.
China’s Su Bingtian, who earlier posted a national record and season leading 9.99 secs while finishing third in the Prefontine Classic IAAF Diamond League at Eugene (USA) three days ago, is not participating here.
In the women section, Japan’s Chisato Fukushima emerged fastest in the semis with 11.28 secs as she is en route to make sweet revenge to local girl Wei Yongli (11.50) in the final.
Hurdlers led Chinese gold quest
As expected the Chinese hurdlers sparkled in both men and women races. Asian Games gold medalist Xie Wenjun (13.56) had a comfortable victory over Kuwait’s Abdulaziz Almandeel (13.67) in men’s 110m hurdles. Korean Kim Byoung-jun filled the podium in 13.75s while defending champion Jiang Fan finished a distant fifth in 13.85 secs.
Fresh from her victory in the IAAF World Challenge meet at her national capital Beijing less than a fortnight ago, Wu Shuijiao find no difficulty in winning the women’s 100m hurdles clocking 13.12 secs. Japan’s defending champion Kimura Ayako finished third (13.41) while Kazakhstan’s Anastassiya Pilipenko equaled her season best 13.33 secs for the silver.
Former world youth champion Lu Minjia takes the long jump with a leap of 6.52m. Korea’s Jung Soon-ok pips local girl Xu Xiaolong by 1 cm for the silver (6.47 to 6.46m).
Liu Tingting, a silver medalist in the last edition of the championships held at Pune, got upgraded to gold position this time in women’s hammer throw (68.24m). Her teammate Luo Na made it 1-2 for China with a 64.97m throw in the ball and chain event. Japan’s Watanabe Akane (59.39m) was the other medalist here.
Al-Garni and Betlhem won metric mile
While Incheon Asiad victor Mohammad Al-Garni (Qatar) got a ‘promotion’ in the men’s race, it was a face-saving win for UAE runner Betlhem Desalegn in the women’s 1500m today. Al-Garni, silver medalist in Pune, had won the Asian Games gold at Incheon last year. However Betlhem finished outside the podium in Incheon.
Al-Garni won the gold in 3:41.42. Baharain’s Mohammed Tiouali (3:42.43) and Belal Mansour Ali (3:43.67), in close call, had won the next two spots.
In an epic battle that went up to the wire, Betlhem pips Zhao Jing in one hundredth of a second to win the women’s title (4:29.39 to 4:29.40). Japan’s Iino Maya takes the bronze clocking 4:32.90.
Convincing wins for Radzivil and Inderjeet
Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Radzivil was another athlete who improved upon her previous position in Wuhan. Radzivil (28), with two back-to-back victories in the Asian Games, was the pre-event favourite here. However it was a convincing victory for the Uzbekh as Radzivil had earlier won only two silver medals through her appearances in the Asian championships at Kobe (2011) and Pune (2013) prior to this.
Inderjeet Singh, the World University Games silver medalist and Asian Games bronze medalist, raised the Indian flag high to win the men’s shot put with a heave of 20.41m. Having achieved a continental leading 20.65m at home, the Indian looking to extend the winning ways his countrymen had in this prestigious championship right from its inception in 1973. With today’s win he had become the eighth Indian ever to win the gold in the biennial meet of Asia.
Chang Ming-Huang of Chinese Taipei (19.56m) and China’s Tian Zhizhong (19.25m) were the other medalists in this event.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for AAA
