Teen Goto blazes past barriers as new heroes rise in Hong Kong
HONG KONG—Day 3 of the 22nd Asian U20 Athletics Championships delivered fireworks, with a teenage hurdler from Japan storming into the record books and fresh champions emerging across the track and field.
At just 17 years old, Taiju Goto electrified the Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground with a blistering 49.25 seconds in the men’s 400‑meter hurdles.
His run shattered the meet record and broke the coveted 50‑second barrier, vaulting him into the elite ranks of the event and signaling Japan’s next hurdles prodigy.
The drama didn’t stop there. The United Arab Emirates quartet of Saeed Shoaib Omar, Aminat Kamarudeen, Suleiman Abdulrahman, and Mariam Kareem rewrote the Asian U20 record books in the mixed 4x400m relay.
Their dominating 3:18.81 erased China’s 2024 standard of 3:22.46, leaving Chinese Taipei trailing at 3:23.92.
For Abdulrahman, Kamarudeen, and Kareem, it was a second taste of gold.
Abdulrahman had already obliterated the men’s 400m record, Kamarudeen ruled the women’s 400m, and Kareem topped the women’s 400m hurdles on the same day with a personal best 56.93 seconds.
Japan’s Ryo Kurimura opened the day with a commanding victory in the men’s 5000m, clocking 14:39.31 to finish nearly a minute ahead of Uzbekistan’s Timur Nasimov.
China continued its surge atop the medal tally, adding golds through Xiying Li in women’s pole vault (4.05m) and Shuanglu Pan in the women’s 3000m (9:36.02), pushing its collection to 11 golds.
India kept pace with three titles: Basant Basant soared to 2.20m in the men’s high jump, Shahnavaz Khan leapt 7.84m in the long jump, and Nikhil Chandrashekar stormed the men’s 3000m steeplechase in 9:25.44.
Chandrashekar surged past Japan’s Yuu Kato in the final 200m, while the Philippines’ Jerico Cadag claimed bronze in 9:35.10.
In the women’s javelin, Yu‑chin Tai of Chinese Taipei asserted control with a 56.91m throw, but the spotlight shifted when the Philippines’ Ana Bhianca Espenilla stunned the field with a personal best 52.20m on her final attempt to seize silver. South Korea’s Kim Minji settled for bronze at 51.51m.
The sprint lanes also lit up: Abdul Quddus of the UAE captured the men’s 200m crown, Mubarik Abdi Said of Qatar ruled the men’s 1500m, and Dilanma Ransini Unnehelage of Sri Lanka sprinted to gold in the women’s 200m.
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