Bangkok – 16 July 2023:
All that starts well, ends well. Proving that proverb in reality the Athletics Association of Thailand, which hosts the Secretariat of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) had successfully organised the 25th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships in Supachalasai National Stadium here in the last five days.
Coinciding with the Golden Jubilee (1973-2023) of the AAA, the championship was organised for the first time in Bangkok although Thailand had the experience and success stories of organising many other competitions on behalf of the continental area association in the past five decades.
As many as 11 new championships records were created and one equaled in the five days of competitions held in the capital city of Thailand. Six athletes and two relay teams have successfully defended their title from the previous edition of the championships held at Doha four years ago.
All eyes were on Ernest John Obiena, the Asian Area Record-holder from the Philippines, as he cleared the initial heights in the pole vault with ease. He took two tries to scale 5.91m, which was 20 cm more than the championship record he set in 2019. Thereafter he asked the bar to be raised to 6.02m, but could not succeed in all his attempts to clear it. Obiena became the first Asian athlete to scale the benchmark 6 metres last month in Bergen, Norway. Saudi Arabia’s Hussain Asim Al-Hizam (5.56m) and China’s Huang Boakai (5.51m) were the other medalists on the podium.
The other successful athlete to defend the title on Sunday evening was Qatari half-miler Abdalla Haydar Abubaker (1:45.53) in men’s 800m, in which Indian Krishan Kumar (1:45.88) and Kuwait’s Ebrahim Al-Zofairi (1:46.11) gave him the required challenge.
Notable among the other athletes who set new championship records today was Shanti Veronica Pereira. The Singaporean completes a “Golden Double” by adding her 200m gold to the 100m win she had earlier. Shanti clocked a new meet mark of 22.70 secs which erased Salwa Eid Naser’s 22.74s from Doha. Indian 100m hurdles winner Jyothi Yarraji was hanging on with Shanti until the last 70m and finished with a silver in 23.13 secs slightly ahead of Li Yuting of China who clocked 23.25s for the bronze.
Japan’s Towe Uzawa surprised the top guns to win the men’s race in 20.23 secs to erase Qatari Femi Ogunode’s 2015 mark of 20.28 secs from the books. Defending champion Xie Zhenye from China finished just outside the podium in fourth and an injured Ogunode in eighth place.
Sri Lankan Tharushi Dilsara Mudiyanselage battled it out for the top spot in women’s 800m with India’s Chanda and her own country-mate Gayanthika Abeyrathna. In that process, Tharushi bettered the meet mark with 2:00.66 followed by Chanda (2:01.58) and Gayanthika (2:03.25).
Minutes later, Tharushi came back to anchor the Sri Lankan team to a silver medal in the women’s 4 x 400m relay wherein the team posted a new national record of 3:33.27 behind the winners Vietnam (3:32.36).
Sri Lankan men’s 4 x 400m relay quartet consisting of Aruna Dharshana, Kaushika Keshan, Rajitha Niranjan Rajakaruna and Kalinga Kumarage was the last one to smash the championship record by clocking a noteworthy 3:01.56 ahead of India (3:01.80) and Qatar (3:04.26).
Probably the Chinese Taipei javelin thrower Cheng Chao-Tsun was the most disappointed athlete this evening as the meet record-holder and defending champion could manage to throw the spear only a paltry 69.54m to land in seventh place. Japan’s Roderik Genki Dean won the event ahead of Indian D.P. Manu (83.15 to 81.01m).
China’s Song Jiayun won the women’s shot put with 18.88m. Japanese runners were top in 5,000m as Hyuga Endo (13:34.94) and Yuma Yamamoto (15:51.16) earned gold medals in men’s and women’s categories respectively.
Earlier in the morning in the re-introduced 20 KM Race Walk, Yutaro Murayama (Japan, 1:24:41) and Yang Liujing (China, 1:32:38) went home as winners.
The organisation of the next two editions of the Asian Athletics Championships has been awarded to Gumi, Korea (2025) and Xiamen, China (2027).
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
