Saving the Best for Last - Day Four of Asian Athletics Championships

On a day that saw three more world-leading marks, three more championships records and nine more national records, Japan saved its best for the last day of the Doha Asian Athletics Championships, bringing home three gold medals, two silvers and four bronze.

Yuki Hashioka brought the Japanese performance of the day, winning gold in the men's long jump with a world lead-tying PB jump of 8.22 m +0.6. Gold also came in the women's 100 m hurdles along with one of the bronzes, with Ayako Kimura and Masumi Aoki going 1 and 3.

The other gold came in the show-stopping men's 4x400 m relay, where Japan led start-to-finish to win  by 0.34 over India. India was later disqualified, elevating China to silver and hosts Qatar to bronze. The Japanese women's 4x400 m team led their race for almost 3/4 of the way, overtaken by India just before the last exchange and caught by Bahrain on the back corner but holding on for a surprise bronze.

Takashi Eto and favorite Naoto Tobe took silver and bronze in the men's high jump behind a great day for Syria's Majdeddin Ghazal, who tied the world-leading mark at 2.31 m. Another solid medal contender, Yuki Koike took silver in the men's 200 m in 20.55, 0.22 behind China's Zhenye Xie.

Maybe the biggest surprise among the medalists came in the men's 5000 m, where teammwork in the early stages between Hiroki Matsueda and Hazuma Hattori paid off with a 3-4 finish. When Ethiopian and Kenyan-born Bahrainis Birhanu Belew and Albert Rop took off mid-race Hattori was left behind as Matsueda settled into a chase trio with a pair of Indian runners. Hattori began to regain ground from 800 m out, kicking into 4th in the home straight as Matsueda came in to bronze just ahead of him.

Performances were also good in the women's and men's 1500 m if short of the medals. Ran Urabe took 4th in the women's race in 4:17.90, with 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's captain Ryoji Tatezawa taking 5th in the men's race in 3:44.70 and Chuo University's Kazuyoshi Tamogami 7th in 3:45.15. Shunya Takayama and Shotaro Shiroyama also came up just short of medals, Takayama taking 4th in the men's 110 m hurdles and Shiroyama 5th in the men's long jump. All told Japan finished 3rd in the medal count behind China and Bahrain with five golds, four silvers and eight bronze medals. Attention now turns towards the National Championships as people bid to make it back to Doha come September.

23rd Asian Athletics Championships

Day Four Results
Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar, 4/24/19
complete results

Finals

Women's 200 m Final +1.2 m/s
1. Salwa Naser (Bahrain) - 22.74 - CR
2. Olga Safronova (Kazakhstan) - 22.87
3. Dufee Chand (India) - 23.24
4. Edidong Odiong (Bahrain) - 23.24
5. Nigina Sharipova (Uzbekistan) - 23.29
6. Manqi Ge (China) - 23.34
7. Lingwei Kong (China) - 23.42
8. Anna Bulanova (Kyrgyzstan) - 23.70

Men's 200 m Final +1.7 m/s
1. Zhenye Xie (China) - 20.33
2. Yuki Koike (Japan) - 20.55
3. Yaqoob Salem (Bahrain) - 20.84
4. Noureddine Hadid (Lebanon) - 20.85 - NR
5. Seung Hwan Ko (South Korea) - 20.94
DNF - Femi Seun Ogunode (Qatar)

Women's 1500 m Final
1. Chitra P. (India) - 4:14.56
2. Gashaw Tigest (Bahrain) - 4:14.81
3. Winfred Mutile Yavi (Bahrain) - 4:16.18
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4. Ran Urabe (Japan) - 4:17.90
10. Ayako Jinnouchi (Japan) - 4:24.17

Men's 1500 m Final
1. Abraham Kipchirchi Rotich (Bahrain) - 3:42.85
2. Ajay Kumar Saroj (India) - 3:43.18
3. Musaab Ali (Qatar) - 3:43.18
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5. Ryoji Tatezawa (Japan) - 3:44.70
7. Kazuyoshi Tamogami (Japan) - 3:45.15

Men's 5000 m Final
1. Birhanu Balew (Bahrain) - 13:37.42
2. Albert Rop (Bahrain) - 13:37.57
3. Hiroki Matsueda (Japan) - 13:45.44
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4. Hazuma Hattori (Japan) - 13:47.82
12. Gawa Zangpo (Bhutan) - 14:33.43
18. Hussein Fazeel Haroon (Maldives) - 15:30.27 - NR

Women's 100 m Hurdles Final +1.3 m/s
1. Ayako Kimura (Japan) - 13.13
2. Jiamin Chen (China) - 13.24
3. Masumi Aoki (Japan) - 13.28
4. Lai Yiu Lui (Hong Kong) - 13.32 - NR
5. Yanni Wu (China) - 13.33
6. Hsi-En Hsieh (Taiwan) - 13.37
7. Hyelim Jung (South Korea) - 13.50
8. Aygerim Shynazbekova (Kazakhstan) - 13.50

Men's 110 m Hurdles Final +1.7 m/s
1. Wenjun Xie (China) - 13.21 - WL, CR
2. Yaqoub Alyouha (Kuwait) - 13.35 - NR
3. Kuei-Ru Chen (Taiwan) - 13.39 - NR tie
4. Shunya Takayama (Japan) - 13.59
5. Taio Kanai (Japan) - 13.64
6. David Yefremov (Kazakhstan) - 13.83
7. Jian Hang Zeng (China) - 13.85
8. Ching Yeung Mui (Hong Kong) - 13.96

Women's 4x400 m Final
1. Bahrain - 3:32.10
2. India - 3:32.21
3. Japan - 3:34.88
4. Sri Lanka - 3:35.06 - NR
5. Vietnam - 3:37.27
6. China - 3:37.97

Men's 4x400 m Final
1. Japan - 3:02.94
2. China - 3:03.55 - NR
3. Qatar - 3:03.95
4. Iraq - 3:05.91 - NR
DQ - India

Men's High Jump Final
1. Majdeddin Ghazal (Syria) - 2.31 m - WL tie
2. Takashi Eto (Japan) - 2.29 m
3. Naoto Tobe (Japan) - 2.26 m
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9. Hussein Falah Al-Ibraheemi (Iraq) - 2.19 m - NR tie

Men's Long Jump Final
1. Yuki Hashioka (Japan) - 8.22 m +0.6 m/s - WL tie
2. Yao Guang Zhang (China) - 8.13 m -0.1 m/s
3. Chang Zhou Huang (China) - 7.97 m +0.2 m/s
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5. Shotaro Shiroyama (Japan) - 7.78 m +0.5 m/s

Women's Discus Throw Final
1. Bin Feng (China) - 65.36 - CR
2. Yang Chen (China) - 61.87
3. Subenrat Insaeng (Thailand) - 58.20
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6. Maki Saito (Japan) - 52.87
NM - Nanaka Kori

Men's Hammer Throw Final
1. Dilshod Nazarov (Tajikistan) - 76.14 m
2. Ashraf Amgad El-Seify (Qatar) - 73.76 m
3. Sukhrob Hodjayev (Uzbekistan) - 72.85 m
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9. Kunihiro Sumi (Japan) - 65.86 m


text and photos © 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved