Gifu, Japan, 7th June 2018: 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championship is hailed as the gateway for Tokyo 2020 athletics and such was the preparation and support for the championship by the local government of Gifu Prefecture that more than 10000 students from junior to high school to business school of Gifu area were involved in the preparation leading to the championship. Japan airforce fighter aircraft based at Gifu airbase carried flypast during the opening ceremony.
China lead medal tally with 3 gold medals followed by host Japan with two gold medals and India is on the third place with 1 gold medal on the opening day of the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championship at Nagaragawa Stadium Gifu Japan.
Chinese women athletes won three gold medals on day one starting with a win in the 10000m walk by Li Ma who set new championship record of 45:20.59s. Nananko Fujii of Japan finished on the second place with 45:24.35s while Wenziu Li of Chian took bronze medal with a performance of 47:38.46s
In the women’s Hammer throw, China secured 1-2 finish with Mengyuan Zhou winning gold medal with a throw of 64.81m while her teammate Jiangyan Li threw 61.44m for silver medal. Reyhaneh Arani of I.R. Iran finished on the bronze medal with a throw of 55.46m.
In the afternoon session Linru Zhang of China won gold medal in the women’s shot put with a throw of 16.05m. Honoka Oyama of Japan settled on the silver medal with a best throw of15.54m while Pei-u Guo of Chinese Taipei took bronze medal with 14.76m throw.
India’s Ashish Jakhar successfully defended his title in the men’s hammer throw with a throw of 76.86m. His teammate and World youth Silver medallist Damneet Singh secured second place with a new personal best of 74.08m. Masanobu Hattori of Japan took bronze medal with a throw of 69.34m
Vu Thi Ngoc Ha of Vietnam edged out Asian Youth Champion Youqi Pan of China in the women triple jump final. Ngoc Ha jumped to 13.22m to seal victory by 1cm over Pan of China. India’s Priyadarshini Suresh took bronze medal with a best jump of 13.08m
Mikuni Yada brought cheer to the host when she led women 5000m final from start to finish; clocking 16:31.65s to win first Gold medal for the host. Lihua Niu of China finished on the distinct 16:55.54s while India’s Poonam Dinkar Sonawane earned bronze medal with a performance of 17:03.65s
In the last event of the day, Syunto Ozaki of Japan secured second gold medal for the host Japan by clearing 5.20m in the men’s pole vault beating Indonesia’s Idan Fauzan Richsan who failed to clear 5.25m and had to settle on the silver place with 5.15m. Kasinpob Chomchand of Thailand and Kazuya Ishibashi of Japan both claimed bronze medal clearing 5.00m height.
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