The second day of U20 Asian Championships took place June 5 in Yecheon, South Korea. In the men's triple jump, Minato Miyao (Toyo Univ.) set a new U20 NR of 16.38 m to win the gold medal. The previous U20 record of 16.35 m had stood for 20 years.
Miyao began his first year at Toyo in April after graduating from Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. Last summer he took 2nd at the Tokushima National High School Championships, then followed up in November with a 16.13 m high school NR jump at the Kyoto Private Schools Championships. Despite the changes to his lifestyle that came with going to college, at April's Oda Memorial Meet Miyao placed 5th overall and 3rd among Japanese men with a jump of 15.76 m +0.7 m/s. At May's Kanto Regionals he won at 16.12 m +2.8 m/s.
At the U20 Asian Championships, Miyao's first jump was 16.08 m into a 2.7 m/s headwind. He duplicated that distance on his fourth attempt and was in the top position at the end of the fifth round. A Chinese athlete moved into the lead on his final jump with a mark of 16.22 m, but Miyao responded with a big 25 cm PB on his last attempt, sealing up the gold medal.
In the men's 100 m final, Kaito Kuroki (Higashi Fukuoka H.S.) took gold in 10.37 - 0.3 m/s. Last year's U18 champion, Kuroki has had a good season with two 10.28 clockings in May. In the qualifying heats at the U20 Asian Championships he ran 10.44 +0.2 m/s to occupy the top spot, and in the final he looked relaxed and free of pressure in lane 3. He and Haruki Narushima (Toyo Univ.) ran 1-2 through the middle phase of the race, but as Kuroki pulled away in the final 30 m Taiwanese athlete Po-Hsun Lin overtook Narushima, knocking him back to the bronze medal position in 10.43.
In the men's 800 m, last year's National High School Championships 4th-placer Hironori Tachizako (Kagoshima Josai H.S.) won gold in 1:49.22. Tachizako led most of the way but had fallen to 3rd with 100 m to go. But with a dramatic kick that thrilled the fans watching the race he repassed his competition to go back into the top spot. Ryuto Aoki (Rikkyo Univ.) was 8th in the same race in 1:53.99.
The only Japanese athlete entered in the men's 3000 m steeplechase, Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) ran solo the entire way to win gold in 8:39.83. Miku Takino (Kyoto Tachibana H.S.) ran 58.92 to take gold in the women's 400 mH final. Last year's women's 10000 mRW world champion Ai Oyama (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) took silver in 46:56.24 behind China's Meiling Chen, the gold medalist in 46:11.08.
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translated and edited by Brett Larner
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