The closing day of the Dubai U20 Asian Athletics Championships saw Japan go out big, with four gold medals led by dominant runs by Sherry Drury (Tsuyama H.S.) and Yota Mashiko (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.). Making her international debut, the 16-year-old Drury led start to finish in the women's 1500 m final, grinding down the rest of the field and putting over 4 seconds on runner-up Sandilea Vinod of India over the last 300 m to win in 4:21.41. Drury's splits: 1:11-2:24-(3:19)-3:35-4:21. There's still a long way for Drury to go, but in terms of form and confidence this was the best she has looked since her legendary breakthrough CR at last year's National Women's Ekiden, and you could see more than a glimmer of what everyone is hoping is really there. Mashiko was even more dominant in the men's 3000 m. Coming out on the front end of some pushing and shoving in the first 50 m, Mashiko led the entire way. By 300 m he had a measurable gap that never got smaller, and af
Day three of the 21st U20 Asian Athletics Championships in Dubai Friday delivered Japan's best single-day medal count so far, with two gold medals, a silver and four bronze. Breaking it down: Yuri Nishida (Ritsumeikan Univ.) and Sari Kamei (Kyoto Kyoiku Univ.) brought A-game in the women's 800 m final. Nishida ran a PB 2:06.55 for gold over India's Sandilea Vinod by 0.55, with Kamei also running a PB of 2:07.56 for bronze. Shota Fuchigami (Waseda Univ.) dominated in the men's 400 mH, running a PB 49.97 to win gold by almost 2 seconds over China's Cai Yuchen and Korean Kim Jeonghyun . Rikuya Yoshida (Nittai Kashiwa H.S.) cleared 5.25 m for silver in the men's pole vault. Yuki Hojo (Yoga T&F) held off Korea's Hwang Uichan by 0.04 for bronze in the men's 110 mH final, running 13.74 (+1.2) to Hwang's 13.78. Kyosuke Yamanaka (Hosei Univ.) was just out of the medals at 13.80 for 5th. Miyabi Sono (Kokushikan Univ.) won bronze in the women'