THE women athletes excelled better than men in most part of the last year. Braving pandemic related lock-downs they continued to train both on home turf as well as in their training bases at Europe and the United States, that include participation of competitions held as and when permitted throughout the World.
THE main attraction among the Asian women athletes in 2020 was javelin thrower LU HUIHUI, who for the second successive year attainted the top spot globally in her favourite event! Huihui used to win a medal each in the last three editions of the World championships, beginning with a silver in 2015 and added two bronzes in 2017 and 2019. The reigning Asian champion first set a continental mark way back in 2012. Improving it further periodically, her latest being the 67.98m that she achieved at Shenyang during the Chinese trials for 2019 World championships. Incidentally it was also the best mark for Javelin Throw that year. Confirming her status as a “world leader” the 31-year-old Huihui retained the numero uno spot with a distance of 67.61m in CAA Throws Meet at Beijing in mid-2020. Her country-mate LIU SHIYING occupied the next rank in the global lists with 67.29m win in their nationals at Shaoxing during September where Huihui was pushed to second place (65.70m). Japan’s HARUKA KITAGUCHI, the Corporate championships winner with 63.45m just managed to figure among the Top-10 in this event.
THE Chinese javelin throwers etched notable marks in the global stage ever since there was a “sporting revolution” emerged in 1990. It was in that year ZHANG LI set out the old model spear to 70.42m, thus ranked second in the World Lists for the year behind East German thrower Petra Felke (73.08m).
In 1991, XU DEMEI become the World Champion in Tokyo. Her performance in the Worlds (68.78m) placed her fourth in the Top Lists for that year.
THE throwing arena witnessed another strongwoman from China maintain her supremacy in Shot Put. GONG LIJIAO, the 2012 Olympic silver medallist who registered two back-to-back victories in the World championships of 2017 and 2019, shared the World Leading mark for 2020 (19.53m) with Portugal’s Auriol Dongmo. Lijiao however heaved the 4 kg iron ball to a better distance (19.70m) to become the absolute leader in indoors. She continuously posted the leading global mark outdoors for four years in a row since 2017.
THE discus throw is another event where two other athletes from China entered the Top-10 rankings in the World. CHEN YANG, the 2018 Asian Games winner in Jakarta, listed fourth with 65.26m. Her teammate FENG BIN, last year’s Asian championships victor in Doha, was three places down at 64.09m.
In the race walking, Japan’s KUMIKO OKADA timed 44 minutes 11.56 seconds in 10,000m track event to reach the top spot in the World. A silver medallist in the above event in World Junior championships ten years ago, Okada finished sixth in the 20 KM race walk during the World championships at Doha in 2019. Three Chinese women figured among the Top-10 in the 20 KM event. Rio Olympics champion LIU HONG, who is credited with three World titles under her belt, ranked fourth with 1:27:48 that she recorded while winning the Nationals at Tian in September. The runner-up in Tian was 2017 World champion YANG JIAYU (1:28:06) while 2019 Doha Worlds silver medallist QIEYANG SHENJIE (1:28:27) who completes the podium there followed Liu Hong in fifth and sixth places in the World Lists respectively.
There were 88 outdoor national marks bettered or equaled by Asian athletes during 2020. Among them women athletes established an incredible 52 records. As much as 30 national indoor marks have been improved by the women among the 62 that recorded in the last season. Interestingly the women athletes from Afghanistan and Singapore accounted the entire indoor marks in 2020 from their respective nations while a similar situation occurred among the outdoor records by athletes from Macau, Maldives, Philippines, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Chinese Taipei, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.
Ram. Murali Krishnan
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