Skip to main content

Asian Junior Championships Day Four Highlights


Japan capped the final day of its role as host nation for the Asian Junior Athletics Championships with a pair of championships records that erased marks set by China way back in that nation’s 90’s heyday.

Nozomi Tanaka, newly-graduated from high school and opting for the club runner life like her mother, sub-2:30 amateur Chihiro Tanaka, got the party started with a 9:04.36 record in the girls’ 3000 m that took almost 6 seconds off Li Xin Lan’s 1997 mark. Her high school and club teammate Yuna Wada wasn’t far off Lan’s old record with a 9:14.13 for silver more than 20 seconds ahead of China’s Fan Liu.

The Japanese girls’ 4x400 m likewise took down a Chinese record set in 1997, running 3:38.20 for gold. India and Sri Lanka were a distant 2nd and 3rd, with China nowhere to be found in the final. One member of Japan’s 4x400 m squad, Kasumi Yoshida, doubled after winning an individual gold in the 400 m hurdles earlier in the day in 58.43. Her teammate Natsumi Murakami missed silver by 0.04, finishing just behind Taiwan’s Jui Hsuan Yang 58.89 to 58.92.

Karin Odama rounded out the day’s girls’ medal haul with a gold in the heptathlon, scoring 5133. The only event of the day in which Japanese girls didn’t take gold was the 200 m, where Yanan Tao of China took the top spot in 24.01. Japan’s Miku Yamada missed getting into the medals by 0.05, running 24.52 for 4th.

On the boys’ side Japan scored two golds, Yusuke Shirao joining Yoshida on top of the 400 m hurdles in 50.52 and Kyohei Tomori clearing 2.16 m for the first time to win the high jump. As in the 10000 m, despite being Asia’s distance power the Japanese boys missed the low-hanging fruit of gold in the 5000 m, Ajeet Kumar of India running a PB 14:15.24 to beat Japan’s Ren Tazawa by 2 seconds and Kiyoto Suzuki finishing out of the medals in 4th.

Japanese boys also picked up bronze in the 200 m and triple jump courtesy of Justin Junpei Tsukamoto and Shunsuke Izumiya. Where the girls dominated the 4x400 m, it was the only event of the day where the boys came up empty-handed, finishing 4th in 3:10.01 almost 2 seconds behind gold medalist Sri Lanka.

In the final medal count Japan came out on top with 14 gold medals, 15 silver and 13 bronze. China was next, with 11 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze. The success of its national team in this championships is bound to buoy hopes for Japan's next big hosting gig two years down the road.  Watch complete replays of all four days of the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships here.

18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships

Day Four Highlights
Gifu, 6/10/18
click here for complete highlights

Girls
Girls’ 200 m Final +0.1 m/s
1. Yanan Tao (China) – 24.01
2. Amasha De Silva (Sri Lanka) – 24.47 – PB
3. Jisna Mathew (India) – 24.48
-----
4. Miku Yamada (Japan) – 24.52

Girls’ 3000 m
1. Nozomi Tanaka (Japan) – 9:04.36 – MR
2. Yuna Wada (Japan) – 9:14.13
3. Fang Liu (China) – 9:35.69

Girls’ 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Kasumi Yoshida (Japan) – 58.43
2. Jui Hsuan Yang (Taiwan) – 58.89 – PB
3. Natsumi Murakami (Japan) – 58.92
-----
5. Moeka Sekimoto (Japan) – 1:00.17

Girls’ 4x400 m Relay Final
1. Japan – 3:38.20 – MR
2. India – 3:41.11
3. Sri Lanka – 3:45.16

Girls’ Heptathlon
1. Karin Odama (Japan) – 5133
2. Cai Juan Chen (Taiwan) – 4925
3. Diana Geints (Kazakhstan) – 4804 – PB

Boys
Boys’ 200 m Final -0.2 m/s
1. Tai Sheng Wei (Taiwan) – 21.05
2. Min Kyu Shin (South Korea) – 21.06
3. Justin Junpei Tsukamoto (Japan) – 21.09 – PB
-----
6. Yuki Takagi (Japan) – 21.59

Boys’ 5000 m Final
1. Ajeet Kumar (India) – 14:15.24 – PB
2. Ren Tazawa (Japan) – 14:17.26
3. Seyedamir Zamanpour (Iran) – 14:25.25 – PB
-----
4. Kiyoto Suzuki (Japan) – 14:26.03

Boys’ 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Yusuke Shirao (Japan) – 50.52
2. Bassem Mohamed Awad Hemeida (Qatar) – 50.55
3. Mahdi Pirjahan (Iran) – 51.18 – PB

Boys’ 4x400 m Final
1. Sri Lanka – 3:08.70
2. Thailand – 3:09.20
3. Malaysia – 3:09.60
-----
4. Japan – 3:10.01

Boys’ High Jump Final
1. Kyohei Tomori (Japan) – 2.16 m – PB
2. Nuh Abdulkadir Ibrahim Anuh (Qatar) – 2.14 m
3. Hao Zhang (China) – 2.12 m
-----
13. Ryuta Bando (Japan) – 1.95 m

Boys’ Triple Jump Final
1. Kamalraj Kanagaraj (India) – 15.75 m -0.3 m/s
2. Gyu Min Yu (South Korea) – 15.56 m -0.3 m/s – PB
3. Shunsuke Izumiya (Japan) – 15.47 m +0.1 m/s

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis
Post a Comment
Read more

Saturday at Kanaguri and Nittai

Two big meets happened Saturday, one in Kumamoto and the other in Yokohama. At Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet , Benard Koech (Kyudenko) turned in the performance of the day with a 13:13.52 meet record to win the men's 5000 m A-heat by just 0.11 seconds over Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH). The top four were all under 13:20, with 10000 m national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) bouncing back from a DNF at last month's The TEN to take the top Japanese spot at 7th overall in 13:24.57. The B-heat was also decently quick, Shadrack Rono (Subaru) winning in 13:21.55 and Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) running a 10-second PB to get under 13:30 for the first time in 13:29.29 for 6th. Paris Olympics marathoner Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) was 9th in 13:30.62. South Sudan's Abraham Guem (Ami AC) also set a meet record in the men's 1500 m A-heat in 3:38.94. 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura made his debut with the Subaru corporate team, running 3:39.78 for 2n
1 comment
Read more

93-Year-Old Masters Track and Field WR Holder Hiroo Tanaka: "Everyone has Unexplored Intrinsic Abilities"

  In the midst of a lot of talk about how to keep the aging population young, there are people with long lives who are showing extraordinary physical abilities. One of them is Hiroo Tanaka , 93, a multiple world champion in masters track and field. Tanaka began running when he was 60, before which he'd never competed in his adult life. "He's so fast he's world-class." "His running form is so beautiful. It's like he's flying." Tanaka trains at an indoor track in Aomori five days a week. Asked about him, that's the kind of thing the people there say. Tanaka holds multiple masters track and field world records, where age is divided into five-year groups. Last year at the World Masters Track and Field Championships in Poland he set a new world record of 38.79 for 200 m in the M90 class (men's 90-94 age group). People around the world were amazed at the time, which was almost unbelievable for a 92-year-old. After retiring from his job as an el
Post a Comment
Read more