By A Correspondent
Sharifa Davronova of Uzbekistan and the Japanese men’s sprint relay team added gold medals to Asia’s collection on the last two days as the World Under-20 athletics championships drew to a close at Cali, Colombia, on Saturday.
Davronova, the 16-year-old Uzbek took the women’s triple jump gold while the Japanese relay team without a gold till then, claimed the title in a dramatic twist of fortunes on the fifth day in which South Africa was disqualified.
Japan produced the lone gold for Asia till then on the penultimate day of the championships when its team was adjudged first in a photo-finish with Jamaica after the initial winner, South Africa, was disqualified.
It was high drama at the end of the sprint relay as South Africa was disqualified because of the lead runner Mukhetwa Tshifura committing a lane infringement, leaving the gold for Japan which tied with Jamaica at 39.35s but was separated by two-thousandth of a second by the photo-finish equipment. The US took the bronze in 39.57s.
Kowa Ikeshita, Hiroto Fujiwara, Shunki Tateno and Hiroki Yanagita comprised the Japanese gold-winning relay team. Much could have been expected from Yanagita in these championships but after a personal best 10.15s in the semifinals in the 100m he finished sixth in the final with 10.24s behind Thailand’s 16-year-old Puripol Bunsoon (fourth in 10.12s in photo-finish for bronze) and Malaysian Muhd. Azeem Fahmi (fifth in 10.14s).
Sharifa Davronova won the triple jump gold with a world-leading 14.04m in her second attempt after having fouled the first. She had one more foul and passed her last two attempts.
Davronova had her previous best of 13.92m in Tashkent in May last and had taken the second place in the Quosanov Memorial in Almaty in June 13.80m.
Sohane Aucagos (France) with 13.38m and Tana Boras (Australia) with a personal best 13.30m claimed silver and bronze on a day of rains and brief disruptions.
Japan also won the silver and bronze in the women’s 10,000m walk on Friday with Ai Ooyama (46:24.44) losing out the gold in a close finish with Mexican Karla Ximena Serrano who timed 46:24.35. Ayana Annai (46:43.07) was the bronze winner for Japan.
Japan also had a bronze through hammer thrower Raika Murakami. In a competition dominated by Italian Rachela Mori (67.21m), Murakami threw 61.45m on her second attempt to register a season best. Paola Bueno Cavillo of Mexico was second with 62.74m.
The Jamaican women’s sprint relay team clocked a world under-20 record in retaining its title won in Nairobi last year with 42.59s effort that left USA (43.28s) and host Colombia (44.59s) behind. Despite a fumble on the second exchange, the Jamaicans bettered the previous record set by their own team last year. Though they bettered the record in the Carifta Games in July with 42.58s that mark by Jamaica was not ratified as dope tests were not conducted on all the four runners.
The Ethiopians won four gold medals on the sixth and final day on Saturday, winning the men’s and women’s middle-distance and long-distance events to underline the emerging talent ready to take over from the current crop of seniors. The gold medals came in the men’s 800m and 3000m steeplechase and the women’s 1500m and 5000m.
India added its second silver medal to take its total tally to two silver and one bronze medal, the same as the country had in last year’s edition. The silver on the fifth day came through triple jumper T. Selva Prabhu who jumped a personal best 16.15m.
That the Indian was more than one metre behind the winner was because of a stunning opening jump of 17.27m by Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert that looked to have surprised the 17-year-old gold medallist himself.
As Hibbert looked up from the sand to see where he had landed, he could not believe it himself. And as the scoreboard came up to show 17.27m, he buried his face near the pit, unable to control his emotions. He passed his last four attempts. He had a previous best of 16.66m back home in April. His winning leap was world lead in under-20 and under-18 and Area record in Under-20.
“I can’t even soak it up. I didn’t see this coming, I’m speechless,” said Hibbert. “This was a surprise because I came to the competition with a knee pain and I didn’t even have a proper run up today.”
Sharifa Davronova, a 16-year-old from Uzbekistan added a second gold to Asia’s collection on the final day, winning the triple jump title with a world-leading 14.04m in her second attempt after having fouled the first. She had one more foul and passed her last two attempts.
Yusuf Ali Abbas of Bahrain, with a personal best 45.80s that fetched him the bronze in the men’s 400m, was the other contributor to Asia’s medals tally in this edition of the championships.
China, like on the last occasion in Nairobi, was absent this time, too, though unlike last time, the US, Britain, Germany and Australia, among others, participated.
India, unlike last time, could not win a medal in the women’s 4x400m relay, its runners obviously fatigued after a late dash from home and a tough schedule with individual and relay events. They finished last in 3:36.72. The US (3:28.06) took the gold with Jamaica (3:31.59) and Britain (3:31.86) claiming the minor medals.
The US topped the medals tally with seven gold, four silver and four bronze while Jamaica came second with six, seven and three. Ethiopia (6-5-1), Kenya (3-3-4), South Africa (2-1-2), Turkey (2-1-1) and France (2-1-0) were the among the others behind the leaders. A total of 24 nations won gold while medal winners came from 41 countries.
