The Asian Athletics Championships wrapped up Saturday in Gumi, South Korea with a string of record-setting performances.
- At the top of the list was the men's 200 m final, where Towa Uzawa ran a championships record and PB 20.21 (+0.8) to win gold, putting him at all-time Japanese #4 and all-time Asian #6. Saudi Abdul Abdu I Atafi and India's Animesh Kujur took silver and bronze in 20.31 and 20.32, with veteran Shota Iizuka 4th in a season best 20.66 that put him one step closer to a 14-straight year under 20.50.
- NR holder Rin Kubo turned in one of the fastest performances of her career so far in the women's 800 m final, just losing out to China's Wu Hongjiao. Wu delivered a meet record 2:00.08 for gold, Kubo just behind her in 2:00.42 for silver and India's Pooja Pooja a few strides back in 2:01.89 for bronze. Ayano Shiomi was 5th in 2:03.59.
- Yuta Sakiyama came up with a PB 83.75 m throw on his final attempt in the men's javelin, good enough for all-time Japanese #5 and bronze behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem at 86.40 m and India's Sachin Yadav at 85.16 m. All-time JPN #2 Ryohei Arai was 9th at 74.21 m.
- A Kenyan running under the Kazakhstan flag, Norah Jeruto Tanui soloed a 14:58.71 championships record for gold in the women's 5000 m. Japan's Yuma Yamamoto and Sora Shinozakura took turns leading the pack behind Tanui, where the race for silver came down to Yamamoto and India's Parul Chaudhary. Chaudhary had the strong kick, taking silver in 15:15.33 with Yamamoto less than 4 seconds off her PB in 15:16.86 for bronze. Shinozakura faded to 7th in 15:54.15.
- Yukichi Ishii and NR holder Ko Ochiai missed out on medals in the men's 800 m final. Ishii was 4th in 1:46.74, over a second and a half behind Qatari bronze medalist AHA Abdalla, with Ochiai far off his best in 1:48.01 for 5th after having won his qualifying heat.
- Remi Tsuruta made the women's 200 m final but was just out of the medals, running 23.29 (+0.3) for 4th. China's Chen Yujie outleaned Singapore's Veronica Pereira for gold 22.97 to 22.98, with China's Li Yuting just beating out Tsuruta for bronze in 23.23.
- Shota Inoue took the men's 400 mH final out hard, leading through 300 m before getting passed by Qataris A.A.S. Al Saleck and BMAA Hemeida, then Taiwan's Chung Wei Ling. One of the Qataris was disqualified immediately after the finish, but when he was reinstated Inoue's final position was 4th in 50.02.
- No medals in the men's pole vault, where Seito Yamamoto took 7th at 5.42 m and Tomoya Karasawa 8th at 5.32 m.
In the final medal count China took the top spot with 19 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze. India was next with 8 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze, with Japan 3rd at 5 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze. Heavily represented by African-born athletes, Kazakhstan and Qatar tied for 4th with 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze, holding South Korea back to 6th with 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. The main focus for Japanese athletes now turns to the July 4-6 National Championships in Tokyo on the same track where the world's greatest city will host the World Championships this September.
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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