Sumire Hata moved up a level globally with a 6.97 m +0.5 m/s Japanese national record to win the women's long jump gold medal on day 3 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships. Already in first with a 6.74 m +1.7 m/s jump in the 4th round, Hata closed with the 6.97 m jump, the 4th-furthest in the world so far this year, to increase her margin over silver medalist Shaili Singh of India to 0.43 m. Bronze medalist Jiawei Zhong was another 8 cm back at 6.46 m.
Another big gold came in the men's 100 m, where Hiroki Yanagita followed up on his 10.10 PB in the first round with a dominating 10.02 +0.0 m/s for gold, winning by 0.17 and moving up to all-time Japanese #7. National champion Ryuichiro Sakai was 6th in 10.26. With many of the main names in Japanese men's spring struggling this season as they hit mid and late career phases, Yanagita's jump up in performance couldn't have come at a better time.
Still another was in the men's 110 mH. Shunya Takayama was just off the Asian Championships record, clocking 13.29 +0.6 m/s for the win by 0.10 over China's Xu Zhouyi with Kuwait's Yaqoub Alyouha a distant 3rd in 13.56. Taiga Yokochi was 5th in 13.59.
Gold also came in the men's 3000 mSC, where Olympian Ryoma Aoki fought off Qatari Yaser Salem Bagharab for the win 8:34.91 to 8:37.11. Seiya Sunada, a national champion over 400 m in junior high school, led the early phase of the race before falling off, but after losing touch he came back over the last lap to take bronze in 8:39.17, just short of retaking Bagharab.
Reimi Yoshimura also took bronze in the women's 3000 mSC in a hard-fought photo finish against India's Priti. 10 seconds behind gold medalist Parul Chaudhary, Yoshimura struggled to stay with Priti when she was overtaken in the home straight but held position and got in on the lean, 9:48.48 to Priti's 9:48.50. Chikako Mori was 5th in 9:56.67.
Japanese athletes finished out of the medals in the rest of the day's finals. Misaki Morota came close, finishing 4th in the women's pole vault at 4.00 m, with teammate Megumi Dainobu 7th at 3.80 m. Maki Saito was 4th too in the women's discus throw at 54.19 m, with Nanaka Kori 5th in 53.72 m. Arisa Kimishima took 5th in the women's 100 m final in 11.56 +0.0 m/s, 0.16 out of the medals. In the men's shot put, Hitoshi Okumura took 9th at 17.69 m.
In the women's heptathlon, Yuki Yamasaki sat in 3rd after the first day at 3359, Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina leading in 3448 and India's Swapna Barman 2nd in 3392. Karin Odama was not far back in 5th at 3308. In the 400 m semi-finals, Yusaku Kodama led the qualifiers for the final in 49.45. Kaito Tsutsue was the fastest non-qualifier at 50.09.
Complete results are here. The Asian Athletics Championships continue through Sunday.
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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