LIMA (Peru) – 27 August 2024:
It was a day of mixed fortune for the Asian athletes in the World Athletics U20 championships in Estadio Atletico de la Videna. The 20th edition of the Junior Worlds, which commenced here on Tuesday, saw the Chinese 4 x 400m Mixed Relay team bagged a bronze–the lone medal by an Asian team on the opening day.
Team India got a bronze medal when the event was introduced three years ago in Nairobi. It rose to a silver position in the previous edition of championships in Cali (Colombia) in 2022 with an improved showing of 3:17.76. Incidentally, the Indian team clocked 3:22.54 in the morning’s heats behind Australia (3:21.10) and was expected to do well in the final. However, things did not go well in the evening as the quartet of Jay Kumar, Neeru Pathak, Rihan Chaudhary and Sandramol Sabu finished fifth in 3:22.92.
The Chinese U20 team came to the rescue as Fu Haoran, Wang Yalun, Ailixier Wumaier and Liu Ynaglan posted a new national U20 record of 3:21.27 to finish third to complete the podium behind teams from Australia (3:19.27, area U20 record) and Poland (3:20.44, national U20 record). The Chinese team earlier won the Asian U20 title in April. Except for Fu Haoran, the three other runners were already part of the team that won gold in Dubai. Comparatively, the Indian team which had better marks earlier, had the disadvantage of not getting the services of their top quarter-miler Bapi Hansda, as he is still not back in shape after going down from a dengue fever.
Boonson fastest among 100m qualifiers:
Thailand’s Puripol Boonson, who barely missed a podium finish in Cali two years ago, clocked 10.30 secs in the 100m semifinals, which turned out to be the fastest among the qualifiers to the Final. Boonson was a silver medalist in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, where he equaled the World U18 best by clocking 10.06 secs in semis before posting a wind-aided 10.02s in the final. Before traveling to Peru, Boonson made it to the semifinals of the Olympic Games in Paris a couple of weeks ago. Two other Asian sprinters, He Jinxian (China) and Naoki Nishioka (Japan), will join Boonson in tomorrow’s final.
However, Asian sprint queen Yujie Chen failed to make the cut to the women’s 100m final. She clocked a paltry 11.79s, nearly half a second slower than her PB of 11.29s registered earlier this year and 11.32s winning time in Dubai.
Hammer throwers Xu Zheng (China, 71.09m) and Talal Alrushoud (Kuwait, 70.49m) were the first to qualify for their event’s final. Kazakh heptathletes Irina Konichsheva (3007 points) and Alina Chistyakova (3194 pts) were trailing low after four events and needed to employ a stupendous effort if they aimed for a medal.
In the long jump, India’s Pavana Nagaraj, the winner of the Asian U20 title with a 6.32m leap in Dubai, disappointed with a nondescript 5.74m in Lima. With no jumpers reaching the automatic qualification mark of 6.40m, Spain’s Laura Martinez with a season-best 6.37m led the list of qualifiers to the final while the twelfth qualifier logging just 5.95m today!
Chinese discus throwers Huang Jingru (56.45m) and Han Bingyang (55.64m) were the top two in the qualifying round. India’s Amanat Kamboj (49.98m) will join the duo in the final.
In the men’s 800m, two Japanese runners, Ko Ochiai and Togo Yoshizawa, together with Qatar’s Hatim Oulghazi, qualified for the semis. The women’s qualifiers saw Japan’s Rin Kubo leading the list with 2:04.53. However, India’s Asian U20 silver medalist, Laxita Sandilea, failed to make the grade. The same was the fate of her teammate Ekta Dey, the reigning Asian junior champion in the steeplechase. The disappointment in the Indian camp continued further with javelin throwers Dipanshu Sharma and Rohan Yadav, the top two podium finishers in Dubai, who could not qualify for the finals in their event. Similarly, Jeong Junseok, the bronze medalist in Dubai, also missed the chance to enter the final. Surprisingly, the list of qualifiers in javelin throw is once again led by China’s Wang Xiaobo (73.83m). He briefly led the World U20 lists earlier this year and had a PB of 76.84m when securing a bronze medal in the Chinese Nationals in June.
African runners dominated the distance races:
As usual, the top places in the distance running events went to athletes from African nations. Four titles were decided on the opening day. Apart from the Mixed Relay, the 5000m for both men and women, besides men’s shot put finals, was held today. Ethiopia’s Eisa Medina posted a new championship record (14:39.71) to win the women’s race ahead of teammate Alemshete Mekedes (14:57.44) and Ugandan Charity Cherop (15:25.02). Japan’s Yumi Yamamoto (16:01.54) finished sixth. China’s Li Yuan finished thirteenth with a time of 16:29.32.
The men’s race was also an All-African affair, with Kenyan Andrew Kiptoo Alamisi taking the gold in 13:41.14. Ethiopian Abdisa Fayia (13:41.56) and Uganda’s Keneth Kiprop (13:41.73) filled the other two places on the podium. The two Japanese runners who were in the fray, Yamato Hamaguchi (14:16.29) and Kaito Matsui (15:31.85), finished 13th and 16th, respectively.
The men’s shot put was a keen contest. Germany’s Georg Harpf led the morning’s qualification round with 20.32m. He tossed the 6 kg iron ball to 20.28m for the bronze medal in the final. South African Jacobus van Rensberg qualified with a PB of 20.01m. In the evening, he improved it to a massive 20.74m. However, it was sufficient only to earn him a silver medal in the final. Jarno van Daalen from the Netherlands heaved it 2 cm farther to pocket the gold. China’s Ge Tingshuo (19.67m, sixth) and Kuwait’s Husain Al Naser (19.17m, eighth) were the two Asians among the finalists.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
Photo 1 : Tony Dou
