Bangkok – 14 July 2023:
Japan’s Sumire Hata was the cynosure of all eyes as she leaped a huge 6.97m to win the women’s long jump on Friday evening.
India’s 19-year-old Shaili Singh was leading the long jump contest with her first round 6.54m and expected to win the event until Hata toppled the table with a 6.74m in her fourth round.
Shaili came here with a personal best of 6.76m, which was 1 cm more than Hata’s before the commencement of the competition today. Hence the Indian made some desperate attempts to take the lead from Hata. However, the day belong to the Japanese jumper as the uncorked the even better 6.97m in the final round. In that process, Hata erased the 25-year-old Championship Record held by Guan Yingnan of China since 1998. Shaili, the silver medalist from the 2021 World U20 Championships in Nairobi is settled with the silver and Zhong Jiawei of China went home with the bronze in 6.46m.
Reigning Asian champion Li Ling was trying to improve her Area Record of 4.72m in the women’s pole vault after equalling her meet mark of 4.66m with a single try-out. However, she called it a day after two unsuccessful attempts at 4.73m.
Singapore’s Shanti Veronica Pereira, a multiple medalist in the regional South East Asian Games got her first-ever senior Asian title as she ran a race of her life to win the women’s 100m in 11.20 secs. Iran’s Farzaneh Faishi was just one-hundredth of a second faster than China’s Ge Manqi (11.39 to 11.40 secs) for the silver.
In the men’s race, Japan’s Hiroki Yanagita surprised favourite Hassan Taftian to win in 10.02 secs. Saudi Arabia’s Abkar Md Abdullah got the silver (10.19s) and Taftian the bronze (10.23s).
The Japanese men also collected two other gold medals on the third day through Shunya Takayama in 110m hurdles (13.29 secs) and Ryoma Aoki in the 3000m steeplechase (8:34.91).
World champion Feng Bin improved her discus throw championship record to 66.42m.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
