Skip to main content

Asian Junior Championships Day Three Highlights


Day Three of the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships saw yet another pair of championships records, one by the home team and another by visitors.

Yuiri Yoshida delivered the goods in the girls’ 100 m hurdles, tying the old record with a mark of 13.45 (+0.9 m/s) for gold. Ayaka Kawata and Ayano Shiomi took gold and silver in the girls’ 800 m, traditionally an area of weakness for Japan, with Ayaka Kora adding to Japan’s gold medal haul with a PB jump of 6.44 m (+0.8 m/s).

Yuka Nosue was a distant bronze in the girls’ 3000 m steeplechase, 17 seconds behind gold medalist Maristela Parami Wasanthi of Sri Lanka who set a PB of 10:21.54 to win. Japan’s girls’ 4x100 m picked up silver well back from winner China’s 45.06 gold medal run.

Jumps and throws are for the most part another area of Japanese weakness, especially on the girls’ side, and in both the pole vault and discus throw they came up empty-handed. China earned gold in both, Zuo Cheng Wu clearing 4.00 m and Huanhuan Yang throwing 51.53 m.

The day’s other record came in the boys’ discus throw, where Iranian Hossein Raouli threw 62.29 m to beat Qatari Moaz Mohamed Ibrahim by just 79 cm. Japan’s Kosei Yamashita earned a surprise bronze with a throw of 56.51. The javelin throw is probably Japan’s strongest event on the field, but Zhekai Liu of China emerged as the only man to clear 70 m, throwing 70.53 m for gold over Japan’s podium fillers Masafumi Azechi and Kentaro Nakamura.

It’s pretty safe to say that with the possible exception of the marathon, there’ll be no event in athletics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics more anticipated than the men’s 4x100 m. The boys’ team gave the home crowd a taste of what everyone is hoping to see by taking gold in 39.65, just beating out a strong Taiwanese squad.

The 4x100 m proved to be the boys’ only gold of the day, as the rest of the day’s medal haul included silvers in the 100 m hurdles and 3000 m steeplechase by Rikuto Higuchi and Takumi Yoshida, the latter just losing a great race against Qatar’s MKA Saife Saifeldin, and a bronze by Fuki Torii in an 800 m final won by India’s Anu Kumar in 1:54.11.

The Asian Junior Athletics Championships wrap up Sunday. Watch the live stream or complete replays of each day’s action here.

18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships

Day Three Highlights
Gifu, 6/9/18
click here for complete results

Girls
Girls 800 m Final
1. Ayaka Kawata (Japan) – 2:04.14
2. Ayano Shiomi (Japan) – 2:04.30
3. Dilshi Kumarasinghe (Sri Lanka) – 2:04.53 – PB

Girls’ 100 m Hurdles Final +0.9 m/s
1. Yuiri Yoshida (Japan) – 13.45 – MR, PB
2. Yuwei Lin (China) – 13.55 – PB
3. Hsiao Hui Lin (Taiwan) – 13.61 – PB

Girls’ 3000 m Steeplechase Final
1. Maristela Parami Wasanthi (Sri Lanka) – 10:21.54 – PB
2. Wan Hua Tian (China) – 10:28.24
3. Yuka Nosue (Japan) – 10:38.30

Women’s 4x100 m Final
1. China – 45.06
2. Japan – 45.94
3. Hong Kong – 47.00

Girls’ Pole Vault Final
1. Zuo Cheng Wu (China) – 4.00 m
2. Anastasya Ermakova (Kazakhstan) – 3.60 m
3. Chia Ju Wu (Taiwan) – 3.60 m

Girls’ Long Jump Final
1. Ayaka Kora (Japan) – 6.44 m +0.8 m/sPB
2. Jia Wei Zhong (China) – 6.44 m +0.4m/s
3. Mirei Yoshioka (Japan) – 5.92 m +0.4 m/s
-----
4 Sumie Kitada (japan) – 5.83 m -0.3 m/s

Girls’ Discus Throw Final
1. Huanhuan Yang (China) – 51.53 m
2. Yuanyuan Yin (China) – 51.17 m
3. Arpandeep Kaur Bajwa (India) - 46.57 m
-----
6. Honoka Shiroma (Japan) – 40.91 m

Boys
Boys’ 800 m Final
1. Anu Kumar (India) – 1:54.11
2. Abdolrahim Dorzadeh (Iran) – 1:54.23
3. Fuki Torii (Japan) – 1:54.55

Boys’ 110 m Hurdles Final +0.6 m/s
1. Hao Hua Lu (Taiwan) – 13.61 – PB
2. Rikuto Higuchi (Japan) – 13.71
3. David Yefremov (Kazakhstan) – 13.81

Boys’ 3000 m Steeplechase Final
1. MKA Saife Saifeldin (Qatar) – 8:51.97
2. Takumi Yoshida (Japan) – 8:52.79
3. Trung Cuong Nguyen (‘Vietnam) – 8:59.32 – PB
-----
4. Arashi Yamamoto (Japan) – 9:02.41

Boys’ 4x100 m Final
1. Japan – 39.65
2. Taiwan – 39.72
3. India – 40.75

Boys’ Discus Throw Final
1. Hossein Raouli (Iran) – 62.29 m – MR
2. Moaz Mohamed Ibrahim (Qatar) – 61.50 m
3. Kosei Yamashita (Japan) – 56.51 m – PB
-----
5. Toshiaki Abe (Japan) – 55.68 m

Boys’ Javelin Throw Final
1. Zhekai Liu (China) – 70.53 m
2. Masafumi Azechi (Japan) – 68.76 m
3. Kentaro Nakamura (Japan) – 65.36 m

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...