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Japan's First Goldless Day - Asian Athletics Championships Day Four Highlights


Day 4 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships was the first without a single gold medal going to Japan, but there were still enough silvers and bronzes to go around.

Robyn Lauren Brown of the Philippines outclassed the rest of the women's 400 mH final field, taking gold in 57.50. Eri Utsunomiya and Ami Yamamoto made it a Japanese 2-3, Utsunomiya running 57.73 for silver and Yamamoto 57.80 for bronze. Yusaku Kodama also scored silver in the men's 400 mH, running 48.96 behind Qatari winner Bassem Hemeida's 48.64.

Yuki Yamasaki won bronze in the heptathlon with 5696 points, Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina taking gold in 6098 and Swapna Barman silver in 5840. Teammate Karin Odama was 4th in 5487. Another bronze came in the mixed 4x400 m relay, with Japan running 3:15.71 behind India's 3:14.70 and Sri Lanka's 3:15.41.

Naoto Hasegawa and Ryoichi Akamatsu both cleared 2.23 m in the men's high jump, Hasegawa finishing 4th overall and Akamatsu 5th. Yuji Tsutsumi and Masateru Yugami were both out of the medals in the men's discus throw, Tsutsumi's best effort landing at 58.90 for 5th and Yugami's at 57.85 for 7th. China's Abuduaini Tuergong scored gold with a closing throw of 61.19 m to overtake Kuwaiti Eissa Zankawi's 60.23 m 5th-round throw. Muhammad Irfan Bin Shamshuddin of Malaysia won bronze at 59.63 m.

In the men's long jump final, lone Japanese jumper Shotaro Shiroyama cleared 8 m with a 8.01 m +1.3 m/s third attempt, but that was only good for 6th. Top 2 Lin Yu Tang (Taiwan) and Sreeshankar (India) were in a different league, both clearing the 23-year-old championships record. Yu Tang jumped 8.40 m +0.3 m/s on his 4th attempt for gold, but Sreeshankar gave him a scare with an 8.37 m -1.1 m/s final attempt that was good for silver. Zhang Mingkun (China) was a distant 3rd at 8.0 m +0.0 m/s on his 2nd attempt.

Complete results here. The Asian Athletics Championships wrap up Sunday.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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