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Final Day Gold Medal Rush Helps Japan Dominate Medal Table at U20 Asian Championships

 

The final day of the Yecheon U20 Asian Championships was held on June 7. Leading the day's action, Junpei Maseda (Waseda Univ.) won the men's 1500 m in 3:50.15. Maseda, who ran the First Stage at this year's Hakone Ekiden for Waseda, led aggressively from the start. Iraq's M. Al-Khazali made a late challenge, but Maseda held him off to take gold.

In the women's 100 mH final, a day after taking silver in the heptathlon Miki Hayashi (Chukyo H.S.) pulled away in the middle phase of the race to win gold in 13.64 -0.4 m/s. Jennifer Saita (Josai H.S.) was the only athlete in the women's 200 m final to break 24 seconds, taking gold in 23.99 -0.1 m/s. Men's 3000 m gold medalist Sonata Nagashima (Asahi Kasei) pulled off the double in the 5000 m, winning again in 14:23.91.


In other events, Sota Haraguchi (Juntendo Univ.) cleared a PB 2.18 m for silver in the men's high jump. Haruya Suzaki (Keio Univ.) was 5th at 2.06 m. In the women's 1500 m, 5000 m gold medalist Nanaka Yonezawa (Meijo Univ.) took bronze in 4:25.75, with Airi Tashima (Japan Post) 4th in 4:28.07 after leading most of the race.

All told, the Japanese team at the U20 Asian Championships took home 23 medals, 14 of them gold. Both its overall total and gold medal haul topped the lists among participating countries. The next U20 Asian Championships are scheduled to be held in 2024 in the United Arab Emirates.

source article:
translated and edited by Brett Larner

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