Orita Wins 5000 m Gold - U20 Asian Championships Day Two

Day two of the 21st U20 Asian Athletics Championships in Dubai was capped with Japan's first gold medal of the games. Less than a month into his first year at 2024 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University, sub-13:30 high schooler Sota Orita fought off multiple surges from Indian duo Gaurav Bhaskar Bhosale and Vinod Singh to take 5000 m gold in 14:08.71 with 56-second last lap and big a move on the last curve. His new AGU teammate Kaito Iida also finished strong for bronze, coming up just short of silver in 14:09.63.

Miku Yanagawa (Gunma T&F Assoc.) added another gold medal to the count in the women's pole vault, winning at 3.85 m on her first attempt, with silver and bronze medalists Anna Cherkashina of Kazakhstan and Melabessy Andriani of Indonesia only going as high as 3.60 m.

Nono Tsuneishi (Fukuoka Univ.) won silver in the women's long jump, jumping 6.21 (+0.7) on her 3rd attempt. Gold medalist Nagaraj Pavana also dropped her biggest jump in the third round with a 6.32 (-0.2) that ended up being enough for the win.

Another bronze came in the women's 100 m final. China's Yujin Chen and Vietnam's Tran Thi went 1-2 in 11.32 and 11.40 (+0.7), but Misaki Morimoto came through with an 11.79 for bronze, 0.2 up on 4th-placer Athicha Phetkun from Thailand.

In other finals, Ai Oyama (SDF Academy) was 4th in the women's 10000 m race walk in 49:38.93. Hiroto Shigemori (Chuo Univ.) also took 4th in the men's 400 m final.

In qualifying rounds:

Ko Ochiai (Shiga Gakuen H.S.) and Hironori Tachizako (Waseda Univ.) both moved on to the men's 800 m semifinals, Ochiai winning Heat 1 in 1:51.95 and Tachizako 2nd in Heat 2 in 1:52.95.
Kyosuke Yamanaka (Hosei Univ.) and Yuki Hojo (Yoga T&F) likewise both advanced in the men's 110 mH, Yamanaka 3rd in Heat 1 in 13.68 (+1.1) and Hoji winning Heat 2 in 14:06. (-0.3).
In the men's 100 m, Kaito Kuroki (Chuo Univ.) ended his progress in the semifinal, finishing only 6th in 10.59 (+1.5) in SF2 and missing the final. Kai Hirasawa (Fukuoka) was 4th in SF1 in 10.60 (+1.7).

Complete results from the morning session and from the evening session.

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