Hammer Thrower Chen Jiawei Leads the Asian Medalists on Third Day
EUGENE, USA - 7 Aug 2026:
The third day of competition at Hayward Field brought more cheer to Asian athletics. As many as four Asian athletes got podium places on Friday evening.
Leading the Asian assault was Chinese hammer thrower Chen Jiawei. Hailing from Jiangsu, the 18-year-old national junior champion improved his world lead already in the qualifying round to a magnificent 80.39m, which is also a new national U20 record. In the finals, he signed off with 79.16m to nail the gold. Incidentally, it was also his maiden global medal.
Chen's teammate Wang Zuoyue, the reigning Asian junior champion, earned a bronze in the men's triple jump with a personal best 16.36m. Jamaican strongman Michael-Andre Edwards won the gold in 17.08m, while American jumper Miles Nesmith settled with silver in 16.79m.
Javelin thrower Ashish Yadav brought India its first medal from the ongoing championships. Ashish became only the second Indian to win a medal in this event after the legendary Neeraj Chopra. Ashish unleashed the spear to 74.09m for the silver. It was just 40 cm shy of his personal best achieved earlier this year. South African Jan-Hendrik Heymans won the gold with a world U20 lead of 80.50m.
In 3000m, Japan's Ojiro Honda improved his National U20 record to 7:48.49 to fetch a bronze medal for his country.
In the semifinals of the 110m hurdles, Japan's Asian junior champion Jeremy Koga bettered the Asian U20 record, clocking 12.95 secs, to qualify for the Final. In this event, no Asian athlete has won a medal at the Junior Worlds so far.
In 200m, Japan's Tomoro Ide and Korean Jun Chae-Min qualified for the final. Two other Japanese, Rin Kubo (800m) and Eito Omori (Long Jump), qualified for the final, as did two Indian long jumpers, Shahnavaz Khan and Jithin Arjunan.
Two Asian athletes made it to the finals in the women's javelin throw – Tai Yu-Chin (Chinese Taipei) and Ayaka Suzuki (Japan). The women's hammer throw qualifications saw China's Chen Jiajun make it to the finals, in which Emirati girl Salma Al-Marri finished thirteenth and barely missed the qualification despite setting a new national U20 mark of 58.96m.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
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