Dear Readers,
HOPE is an important word that keeps many hearts alive through the years. It is more meaningful now than in the past as we have witnessed a difficult situation around the World in most part of the 2020 and eagerly looking at the ray of hope in 2021 when it first appeared in the Eastern region of ASIA.
MANY competitions that scheduled in last year have either cancelled or postponed to 2021. However, at least one third of the Asian Athletics Association member nations have been able to organise their National Championships in 2020. Although there is no second thought that they were not similar to that of previous years, the organisation of such competitions brought hope to REVIVE the activities further in the upcoming season.
WHILE the Wanda Diamond League meetings have been postponed in many parts of the World, DOHA successfully organised it in September with excellent performances registered in many events. The three big names in the Vaulting World – Armand Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie – equaled the meet mark with an identical 5.82m clearance in that competition. Kenyan runners Faith Kipyegon (1:57.68 in 800m) and Hellen Obiri (8:22.54 in 3,000m) established World Leads for 2020 in their respective events. Competing against a cream of global athletes, Asian quarter-milers YOUSSEF KARAM (Kuwait) and MOHAMMAD NASSER ABBAS (Qatar) wrests the silver and bronze medals in Men’s 400m dash.
LOOKING at the Men’s events, Japan’s EIKI TAKAHASHI established a “World Best” in the rarely contested 10,000m race walk with a time of 37 minutes 25.21 seconds in Inzai during November. The above event is no longer recognised for official world record purpose and hence labelled as world best. The previous best in this event was 37:53.09 by Spain’s Francisco Fernandez (2008). Mention must be made here that Japan’s Yusuke Suzuki is holding the official World Record in 20 km walk (1:16:36) since 2015. Incidentally the 28-year-old Takahashi, a finalist in the World championships at Doha, won five consecutive national titles in 20 km walk between 2015 and 2019.
WHEN indoor competitions were held in the early part of 2020, before the lock-down due to Coronavirus pandemic came in to force in many parts of the World, two “Asian Indoor” marks were established in 3,000m and Shot Put. Bahrain’s Asian 5,000m champion BIRHANU BALEW twice improved Albert Rop’s 3,000m record with times of 7:38.67 and 7:34.58 during competitions held in Dusseldorf and Lievin respectively. At home, SHAHIN MEHRDELANfrom Islamic Republic of Iran heaved the iron ball to 20.74m – an amazing 58 cm over the previous mark held by Chinese shot putter Zhang Jun since 2012.
WITH a major portion of the summer season aborted in number of places, athletes from Asia occupied leading spots in the annual top lists in 2020. To cap it all, long jumpers from ASIAN countries grabbed the top three spots in the World Lists for the year. It took nearly 90 years for an Asian long jumper to log a World Leading performance for a year. Japan’s legendary CHUHEI NAMBU was the first athlete to had this honour when he leapt 7.98m in Tokyo way back in 1931. Further he was also ranked 2nd in 1932 (7.76) and 3rd in 1933 (7.60) world lists. Besides this he also registered a wind-aided 7.55m in 1929 that placed him a joint second for that year.
ANOTHER athlete representing Japan, GENKEN KIM, registered 7.66m in 1940 – the second best for the year amid World War-II. In recent times, Saudi Arabia’s MOHAMED SALMAN AL-KHUWALIDI delivered a big 8.48m leap to gain second spot in the 2006 lists. He went on to become Asian champion the next year and got a World indoor bronze medal in 2008.
COMING back to 2020, China’s HUANG CHANGZHOU set the momentum with a world leading 8.28m during the National Street Jumping Meet at Nanjing on 4th September. Japan’s reigning Asian Champion YUKI HASHIOKA took the call by adding 1 cm (8.29) to it while winning the All Japan Universities championships barely a week later. The current World University Games gold medalist’s joy lasts just four days as Changzhou battled with WANG JIANAN for the top honours in the Chinese Nationals at Shaoxing on 15th September. There Changzhou opened up with a stunning 8.33m first round lead. Jianan responded it by logging 8.36m in the second round. That brought him the ‘numero uno’ spot in the World in an event otherwise dominated by the US jumpers usually. With global experiences already on their belt, the trio will be interesting to watch in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
TWO Japanese seized the top two spots in the 20 km race walk. In mid-February at Kobe, TOSHIKAZU YAMANISHI(1:17:36) and KOKI IKEDA (1:19:07) obtained the first two places in their nationals to led the World Lists accordingly. Ikeda further improved his mark to 1:18:22 top place finish at the annual race walking championships in Nomi City thereafter.
ALSO two other Asian athletes finished the season with near top performances on the globe. Indian javelin thrower NEERAJ CHOPRA, holding the World U20 record in his name, set a World Leading throw of 87.86m at the beginning of 2020 at his training base in the high altitude Potchefstoom in South Africa. Chopra held it just over seven months until Germany’s 2017 World Champion Johannes Vetter unleashed the spear to a whooping distance of 97.76m in Poland during the first week of September. The next month, TOMOHIRO SHINNO (Japan) won his maiden national title in high jump at Niigata with a 2.30m clearance that was just 1 cm shy of his personal best (2.31) achieved just two weeks earlier during the All Japan Corporate Championships in Kumagaya. Only the Belarussian jumper Maksim Nedasekau had a better mark (2.33) than Shinno last year. As much as seven jumpers shared the third spot on the list with an identical 2.30m clearance. Korea’s WOO SANG-HYEOK, the silver medalist in 2018 Asian Games at Jakarta, was one among them.
FOUR Asian athletes listed as sixth in track events. Japan’s ASKA CAMBRIDGE in 100m (10.03 secs), Kuwait’s YOUSSEF KARAM in 400m (45.25), hurdlers XIE WENJUN (13.24 in 110-H) and TATSUHIRO YAMAMOTO (49.12 in 400-H) were those athletes. Japanese distance runner AKIRA AIZAWA, who established a national record 27:18.75 in 10,000m during Osaka Nationals at the rear end of the year and his country-mates TAIOH KANAI (13.27 secs over 110m hurdles) and KAZUKI KUROKAWA (49.19 secs in 400m hurdles) together with Chinese triple jumper FANG YAOQING (17.13m), closely followed them in the seventh rank n 2020 lists.
MENTION must be made of the young RYUJI MIURA, the Asian Youth champion in 2019, who rapidly improved his timing in 3,000m steeplechase to 8:19.37 – a Japan U20 record and a clear 20 secs faster than his previous best. It was also a world leading mark in his age-group during last year.
THE distance running events are always a forte of Japan. SUGURU OSAKO timed 46 minutes 36 seconds for 10 Miles, en route to his second place finish in the Row River Half Marathon at Dorena, United States in October. It was also the second best time for that distance for the year. Japanese runners also occupied the next three rankings in that event behind him. Osako set a national record (2:05:29) while finishing fourth at the Tokyo International Marathon in March. YUKI KAWAUCHI, who recorded his fastest time of 2020 (2:10:26) while finishing on second place at Hofu Marathon, achieved a unique distinction of running the distance under 2 hours 20 minutes for the 100th time. Interestingly it was his 107th full marathon in career!
ELSEWHERE the Taipei International Marathon witnessed over 30,000 participants in various distances—the largest field since COVID-19 outbreak—with 7,373 finishers in full and 14,816 in half-marathon races. In the world class Airtel Half Marathon at New Delhi, India’s AVINASH SABLE returned a national best 60:30 while finishing tenth in the Men’s section where the top three runners clocked sub-59 minutes and five others ran under 1 hour. Incidentally Sable qualified for Tokyo Olympics in 3,000m steeplechase with a national record 8:21.37 that he achieved during the World championships in Doha where he finished 13th in the finals.
The Sri Lankan national championships were held in the last week of December, in which KALINGA KUMARAGEmade a sprint double by winning 200m in a wind-aided 20.79 and 400m in a noteworthy 46.25 secs.
A review fn the Asian women’s achievements during 2020 will appear in the next edition of the digest.
Ram. Murali Krishnan
(Note: You may send your comments on the above article to sec@asianathleticsassociation.org and/or editor@asianathleticsdigest.com)
