Yecheon – 4 June 2023:
Qatar’s Seifeldin Mohamed Abdelsalam (18) brought the first gold to his country on the opening day of the 20th Asian U20 Championships, which commenced here on Sunday. It was indeed the first-ever gold medal a Qatari athlete won in this event in the championship’s history.
Starting at the height of 4.80m, Seifeldin made a seamless clearing in each of his attempts displaying excellent athleticism and took the championship record at 5.36m that erased Chinese Zhang Wei’s name, who held the previous mark of 5.35m since 2012, from the books. After making another first attempt clearance in 5.41m, the Qatari vaulter decided to raise the bar to 5.50 and took two attempts to scale it before winding off with a golden smile on his face.
Seifeldin won the Asian U18 title in Al-Kuwait last year and annexed the top spot in the Arab Athletics U23 championships at Rades, Tunisia, just a fortnight ago with a 5.30m clearance and added to an incredible 20 cm to his previous best to conquer the Asian U20 crown in Yecheon. Almost three decades ago, in 1994, Ahmed A Yousef shared the silver medal with Japan’s Kogoshi Kiyonobu in the Asian Junior Championships held in Jakarta.
China’s Liu Rui (5.15) and Kitada Lui Oskar Seijiro of Japan (5.10) filled the other podium spots today.
Young Heena added U20 gold to her collection:
Indian quarter-miler Rezoana Mallick Heena was another Asian U18 champion who graduated to the U20 podium today. It was her second continental crown in just five weeks after winning the youth gold with a noteworthy 52.98 secs clocking in Tashkent.
Two athletes from Sri Lanka, both of them almost three years elder to Heena, tried to challenge the Indian in Yecheon on Sunday evening. A rhythmic runner, Heena took the lead right from the beginning of the race and maintained it until finishing first in 53.32 secs. Although she was looking cheerful at the start, her facial expression after looking at the trackside timer at the finish, showed some disappointment as she could not accomplish what was planned earlier. She is expected to join the Indian relay quartet in the upcoming Asian championships in Bangkok next month.
Tharushi Dilsara Karunaratne, who earlier this year clocked 53.41 secs to set a Sri Lankan U20 mark in 400m, finished second to Heena with a time of 53.71 secs for the silver. Tharushi, however, is a strong contender to win the 800m tomorrow
The men’s race title went to Qatar’s Ismail Doudai O Abakar in 46.18 secs. Korea’s Bae Geon-Yul clinches the silver in 46.73 secs.
India won another gold through discus thrower Bharat Preet Singh. It was a nail-biting victory for Bharat as Dunyozod Sayfullaev (Uzbekistan, 55.58m) and Mohammadreza Sisakht (Iran, 55.44m) gave some anxious moments to the Indian camp. It was Bharat’s 55.66m third-round throw that did the trick. Bharat Preet’s was the much-awaited title for his county and only the third gold for India in the Asian junior championships after two back-to-back titles won by Bahadur Singh (1992) and Rajiv Kumar (1994) thirty years ago.
Japan dominates distance running:
As in tradition, runners from Japan went home with top spots in the two distance running titles decided on the opening day.
Nanaka Yonezawa and Akari Matsumoto made it 1-2 in the women’s 5,000m. Sonata Nagashima won the men’s 3000m, which was introduced for the first time in the championships, in a moderate 8:19.49 well ahead of Korea’s second-placed Kim Tae-Hun (8:41.14).
Incidentally, Japan won the first gold through javelin thrower Sakurai Nozomi. She sent the spear to 50.02m for her country’s second-ever title in the Asian U20 meet after Shiori Touma (2014). Japan led the medals table with 3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medals.
Lin Jiaxin won the lone gold for China today in women’s shot put (15.91m) beating Malika Nasriddinova (Uzbekistan, 15.76m) to the second spot.
Young athletes from across Asia revealed their joy as the Asian U20 championships returned after a gap of five years due pandemic related postponements. The four-day meet will conclude on June 7.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
