Bangkok – 13 July 2023:
The 25th Asian Athletics Championships commenced with a golden note to the hosts Thailand as their men’s 4 x 100m relay quartet exhibited excellent athleticism that warm the goggles of the spectators on a warming opening day (12 July).
The triumphant winning team consisting of Natawat Iamudom, Chayut Khongprasit, Soraoat Dapbang and Puripol Boonson bettered the previous mark held in their team’s name since the previous edition held at Doha in 2019 by clocking 38.66 secs in the qualifying round. The quartet went on to improve it further in the finals with a time of 38.55 secs, with a clear lead over second-placed China (38.87s).
It was the fifth time that a Thailand men’s team won the gold in the Asian championship history in this event.
Japan’s domination on the opening day includes a top-notch victory in women’s javelin throw in which 27-year-old Marina Saito (61.67m) surprised China’s Olympic champion Liu Shiying (61.51m) for the gold. Sri Lankan Nadeesha Dilhani registered a personal best of 60.93m to complete the podium.
Nozomi Tanaka rewrites the 1,500m meet mark to 4:06.75 while Mariko Morimoto topped in the triple jump with a distance of 14.06m. In the men’s 10,000m, Ren Tazawa outpowered Shadrack Kimutai Koech, running under the Kazakh flag, to win in 29:18.44 to 29:31.62. Indian runner Abhishek Pal took the bronze (29:33.26).
China got the lone gold on the opening day through their women’s 4 x 100m relay team (Liang Xiaojing, Yuan Qiqi, Wei Yongli and Ge Manqi) in 43.35 secs with Japan (43.95) and Thailand (44.56) took the minor placings.
India came up on the second day:
Athletes from India and Japan took three titles each on Thursday. Among the three golds India won, the most surprising one came from Jyothi Yarraji in women’s 100m hurdles. Jyothi was the fastest qualifier to finals with her heats timing of 12.98 secs, which was just one-hundredths of a second slower than the meet mark of 12.97s held by Chian’s Feng Yan since 1998.
The line-up in finals includes Japan’s Asuka Terada and Masumi Aoki, the silver and bronze medalists in the previous edition of the championships held at Doha four years ago. There was a sudden downpour just before the commencement of the final race. Thereafter a false start from China’s Wu Yanni ate away some valuable minutes as she is reluctant to buy the verdict of the officials before giving it away.
When the race began, Jyothi fumbled on the start before catching up with the Japanese duo at the seventh hurdle and got the better of them at the finish in a modest 13.09 secs win.
Similarly, in the triple jump, India’s Commonwealth Games silver medalist Abdulla Aboobacker was trailing sixth after the second round. He leaped 16.92m in his fourth round which fetch him the gold ahead of Japan’s Hikaru Ikehata (16.73m) and Koren Kim Jang-Woo (16.59m). Surprisingly, China’s Fang Yaoqing (the reigning Asian Indoor Champion) and Wu Ruiting (2017 & 2019 World Championships finalist) finished fourth and eighth respectively in this event.
In yet another surprise, metric miler Ajay Kumar Saroj came from behind to win the men’s 1500m in 3:41.51. “Today’s win earned me an automatic spot in the upcoming World championships in Budapest. However, I am focusing on the Asian Games”, the winner revealed after the race. In his earlier two Asian championships, Ajay won gold in 2017 and a silver 2019.
Chinese hammer throwers dominated in both men and women categories with victories through Wang Qi (72.13m) and Zhao Jie (69.39m).
Coming back to Japanese victories, Kentaro Sato posted a personal best of 45.00 secs to win 400m, Haruka Kokai 32:59.36 in 10,000m and the decathlon winner Yuma Maruyama scored 7,745 points. India’s overnight leader Tejaswin Shankar finished third in the decathlon behind Maruyama and home-favorite Sutthisak Singhon, the 2018 Asian Games silver medalist.
In other events, Sri Lankan quarter-miler Nadeesha Ramanayake improved her personal best to 52.61 secs to win the women’s 400m while Kazakh high jumper Kristina Ovchinnikoa clinches the gold by sailing over 1.86m.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
