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 U20 champion, who had already set a national U20 record and extended his world U20 lead to 80.39m in Wednesday's qualifying, signed off in the final with 79.16m to nail the gold. Incidentally, it was also his maiden global medal.
Chen's teammate Wang Zuoyue, the reigning Asian U20 champion, earned a bronze in the men's triple jump with a personal best 16.36m. Jamaican triple jumper Michael-Andre Edwards won the gold with 17.08m, while American jumper Miles Nesmith settled for silver with 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 the 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 U20 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 World Athletics U20 Championships so far.
In the 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. Emirati Salma Al-Marri finished thirteenth in qualifying and narrowly missed making the final, despite setting a new national U20 mark of 58.96m.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
