Kiryu Takes Gold - Day Two of Asian Athletics Championships

Despite sparse attendance, day two of the Doha Asian Athletics Championships saw three world-leading performances, five championships records, eight national records and Japan get onto the medal tally board in a real way after a relatively slow first day.

Qatari Abderrahman Samba turned in the performance of the day with a world-leading 47.51 championships record in the men's 400 m hurdles that left Japan's Takatoshi Abe tumbling in the turbulence. World-leaders also came in the men's 800 m via Qatari's Abubaker Haydar Abdalla with a 1:44.33 and the men's javelin with a throw of 86.72 m by Chao-Tsun Cheng of Taiwan.

After only winning a single bronze medal on the first day of the championships Japan got rolling with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals. National record holder Yoshihide Kiryu took the gold in the men's 100 m, running 10.10 +1.5. Teammate Ryota Yamagata was a DNS after winning his semifinal in a season best 10.18.

Ayaka Kora won silver in the women's long jump with a jump of 6.16 m -0.1, beating Hong Kong's Ya Xin Yue by just 1 cm. Hitomi Nakano (Japan) was just 5 cm out of the medals at 5th in 6.10 m +0.8.

Akane Watanabe won a surprising bronze medal in the women's hammer with a throw of 63.54 m, but despite bringing home some hardware she was nowhere near the level of gold and silver-winning Chinese duo Zheng Wang and Na Luo. Wang threw a championships record 75.86 m for gold with Luo clearing 72 m for silver.

The other Japanese medal of the day came in the men's javelin throw, typically one of Japan's better events. While Taiwan's Cheng narrowly took gold over India's Shivpal Singh, both throwing over 86 m, Ryohei Arai had an equally narrow margin of about 50 cm over Taiwan's Shih-Feng Huang with a throw of 81.93 m to pick up the bronze.

Day one was full of near-misses for Japan, and on day two  Eri Utsunomiya (Japan) had one of her own, missing bronze in the women's 400 m hurdles by 0.16 with a 57.38 for 4th. Along with Abe and Nakano, Japanese athletes also finished 5th in the men's 400 m and women's hammer throw.

Looking toward day three's medal contenders, Akihiko Nakamura and Keisuke Ushiro ended the first day of the decathlon in good position, Nakamura leading the standings by 69 points and Ushiro 62 points out of the bronze position in 4th. Yuki Yamasaki also ended the first day of the heptathlon in 4th, but with a deficit of 155 points to 3rd she has a much tougher day ahead to get into the medals. Naoto Tobe and Takeshi Eto both advanced to the final in the men's high jump where at least Tobe should be a realistic contender, and in the women's 10000 m both Yuka Horii and Hitomi Niiya should be in the race for the podium if they can work together to keep the pace hot. The Asian Athletics Championships continue through Wednesday.

23rd Asian Athletics Championships

Day Two Results
Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar, 4/22/19
complete results

Finals

Women's 100 m Final +1.8 m/s
1. Olga Safronova (Kazakhstan) - 11.17 - CR
2. Xiao Jing Lang (China) - 11.28
3. Yong Li Wei (China) - 11.37
4. Nigina Sharipova (Uzbekistan) - 11.41
5. Dufee Chand (India) - 11.44
6. Iman Jassim (Bahrain) - 11.55
7. Anna Bulanova (Kyrgyzstan) - 11.61
8. Supawan Thipat (Thailand) - 11.64

Men's 100 m Final +1.5 m/s
1. Yoshihide Kiryu (Japan) - 10.10
2. Lalu Muhammad Zohri (Indonesia) - 10.13 - NR
3. Zhiqiang Wu (China) - 10.18
4. Andrew Fisher (Bahrain) - 10.20
5. Chun-Han Yang (Taiwan) - 10.28
6. Kuk Young Kim (Korea) - 26.22

Men's 400 m Final
1. Yousef Karam (Kuwait) - 44.84 - NR
2. Abbas Abubaker (Bahrain) - 45.14
3. Mikahil Litvin (Kazakhstan) - 45.25 - NR
4. Arukia Rajiv (India) - 45.37
5. Julian Walsh (Japan) - 45.55
6. Taha Hussein Yassen (Iraq) - 45.74 - NR
7. Muhammed Anas Yahiya (India) - 46.10
DQ - Rikuya Ito (Japan)

Women's 800 m Final
1. Gomathi Marimuthu (India) - 2:02.70
2. Chun Yu Wang (China) - 2:02.96
3. Margarita Mukasheva (Kazakhstan) - 2:03.83
4. GTA Aberathina (Sri Lanka) - 2:05.74
5. Marta Hirpato (Bahrain) - 2:07.59
6. Ayano Shiomi (Japan) - 2:07.70
7. KLA Waliwarsha (Sri Lanka) - 2:08.69
8. Zhi Ying Hu (China) - 2:10.36

Men's 800 m Final
1. Abubaker Haydar Abdalla (Qatar) - 1:44.33 - WL
2. Ebrahim Alzofairi (Kuwait) - 1:46.98
3. Jamal Hairane (Qatar) - 1:47.27
4. Abdirahman Saeed Hassan (Qatar) - 1:47.71
5. Jun Lin Li (China) - 1:47.89
6. Takumi Murashima (Japan) - 1:52.32
7. Mohammed Afsal (India) - 1:54.68
DNF - Jinson Johnson (India)

Women's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Thi Lan Quach (Vietnam) - 56.10
2. Aminat Yusuf Jamal (Bahrain) - 56.39
3. SL Gayakmad (India) - 57.22
4. Eri Utsunomiya (Japan) - 57.38
5. Adelina Akhmetova (Kazakhstan) - 57.92
6. Arpitha Manjunatha (India) - 58.15
7. Yan Huang (China) - 58.29
8. Jiadie Mo (China) - 59.20

Men's 400 m Hurdles Final
1. Abderrahman Samba (Qatar) - 47.51 - WL, CR
2. Chieh Chen (Taiwan) - 48.92
3. Jabir Madari Plliyalil (India) - 49.13
4. Bassem Hemeida (Qatar) - 49.45
5. Takatoshi Abe (Japan) - 49.74
6. Mahdi Pirjahan (Iran) - 50.18 - NR
7. Chia-Hsuan Yu (Taiwan) - 50.31
8. Mehboob Ali (Pakistan) - 50.34

Women's Long Jump Final
1. Min Jia Lu (China) - 6.38 m +1.7 m/s
2. Ayaka Kora (Japan) - 6.16 m -0.1 m/s
3. Ya Xin Yue (Hong Kong) - 6.15 m -0.6 m/s
4. Shui Qing Chen (China) - 6.15 m +1.3 m/s
5. Hitomi Nakano (Japan) - 6.10 m +0.8 m/s

Men's Triple Jump Final
1. Rulsan Kurbanov (Uzbekistan) - 16.93 m +1.7 m/s
2. Ya Ming Zhu (China) - 16.87 m +2.3 m/s
3. Xiao Long Xu (China) - 16.81 m +1.0 m/s
4. Pratchaya Tepparak (Thailand) - 16.27m +1.4 m/s
5. Mark Harry Diones (Philippines) - 16.24 m +0.5 m/s
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7. Ryoma Yamamoto (Japan) - 16.04 m +1.4 m/s
10. Kohei Yamashita (Japan) - 15.08 m +1.4 m/s

Men's Shot Put Final
1. TPS Toor (India) - 20.22 m
2. Jia Xiang Wu (China) - 20.03 m
3. Ivan Ivanov (Kazakhstan) - 19.09 m
4. Shahin Mehrdelan (Iran) - 18.71 m
5. Abdelrahman Mahmoud (Bahrain) - 18.68 m - NR
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9. Daichi Nakamura (Japan) - 17.51 m

Women's Hammer Throw Final
1. Zheng Wang (China) - 75.86 m - CR
2. Na Luo (China) - 72.23 m
3. Akane Watanabe (Japan) - 63.54 m
4. Sen Jin Park (South Korea) - 61.86 m
5. Hitomi Katsuyama (Japan) - 59.70 m
6. Panwat Gimsrang (Thailand) - 55.04 m

Men's Javelin Throw Final
1. Chao-Tsun Cheng (Taiwan) - 86.72 m - WL, CR
2. Shivpal Singh (India) - 86.23 m
3. Ryohei Arai (Japan) - 81.93 m
4. Shih-Feng Huang (Taiwan) - 81.46 m
5. Qi Zhen Liu (China) - 80.19 m
-----
11. Takuto Kominami (Japan) - 71. 44 m

Heptathlon Standings
1. Ekaterina Vornina (Uzbekistan) - 3576
2. Qing Ling Wang (China) - 3547
3. Swapna Barman (India) - 3523
4. Yuki Yamasaki (Japan) - 3368
5. Purnima Hembram (India) - 3308
6. Mu Han Shen (China) - 3239
7. Chia-Ling Chu (Taiwan) - 3178
8. Irina Velihanova (Turkmenistan) - 3168
9. Yeon Jin Jeong (South Korea) - 3026
10. Zaina Abdeen (Jordan) - 2563

Decathlon Standings
1. Akihiko Nakamura (Japan) - 4070
2. Majed Alzaid (Kuwait) - 4001
3. Ke Wei Gong (China) - 3964
4. Keisuke Ushiro (Japan) - 3902
5. Yu Fei Hu (China) - 3864
6. Abd Al-Sajjad Al-Suahawi (Iraq) - 3790
7. Marat Khaydarov (Uzbekistan) - 3699

Qualifying Rounds

Men's 4x100 m Relay Final Qualifiers
Thailand - 38.72 - NR, CR
China - 39.06
South Korea - 39.22
Taiwan - 39.38
Oman - 39.41 - NR
Philippines - 39.57
Hong Kong - 39.70
Saudia Arabia - 39.88

Men's High Jump Final Qualifiers - all cleared 2.16 m
Takashi Eto (Japan)
Majdeddin Ghazal (Syria)
Hup Wei Lee (Malaysia)
Long Chen (China)
Chun-Hsien Hsiang (Taiwan)
Hussein Falah Al-Ibrahim (Iraq)
Kayvan Ghanbarzadeh (Iran)
Nauraj Singh Randhawa (Malaysia)
Zhao Sun (China)
Naoto Tobe (Japan)
Mahmat Hamdi (Qatar)
Sang Hyeok Woo (South Korea)

text and photos © 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved