After taking silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games 10000 m, former NR holder Ririka Hironaka was back in the 5000 m to try again for gold. And you can't say she didn't try. Hironaka immediately dictated the terms of the race, leading the first 1000 m in 3:00.43 and most of the way to 2000 m in 6:04.28 before pulling into the 2nd lane to let Ethiopian Bahraini Bontu Edao Rebitu do some of the work. The pace immediately slowed, with 3000 m and 4000 m splits of 9:14.44 and 12:24.30, until Hironaka attacked again.
Over the last 1000 m she accelerated steadily and one by one cracked all three African-born athletes and India's Anita until the only one left behind her was 3000 m SC silver medalist Parul Chaudhary of India. On the back straight Hironaka managed to open some distance on Chaudhary and it looked like she might actually pull off the win, but with less than 50 m to go Chaudhary reeled her back in to take gold in 15:14.75 to Hironaka's 15:15.34, a 2:51.04 closing km for Hironaka. Kazakhstan Kenyan Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui took the bronze in 15:23.12, holding off Japan's Yuma Yamamoto by just under 7 seconds.
In the men's decathlon, Shun Taue and Yuma Maruyama built on their good performances on the first day, Taue winning the 1500 m in 4:38.27 and Maruyama taking 3rd in 4:45.17. That was enough to give Maruyama the bronze medal with 7568 points overall, just short of Indian silver medalist Tejaswin Shankar's 7666 PB. China's Qihao Sun won gold at 7816 points despite finishing last in the 1500 m. Taue was 4th with 7271 points.
The night wrapped with the men's 4x100 m, with Japan fielding a team of half veterans and half new blood. Japan's first-ever sub-10 runner Yoshihide Kiryu handed off to Yuki Koike, who put Japan ahead on the back straight. 200 m gold medalist Koki Ueyama kept that going to build a lead that could help relatively inexperienced anchor Shoto Uno bring it in to gold. But China's anchor Jiapeng Chen was too strong, catching Uno for home soil gold in 38.29 and knocking Japan back to silver in 38.44. Bronze medalists South Korea tied their national record at 38.74, with 4th and 5th-placers Thailand and Indonesia also turning in NR of 38.81 and 39.25. Malaysia initially placed highly but was disqualified for lane infringement.
In the women's 400 mH, the superhumanly muscular Nigerian Bahraini Oluwakemi Adekoya, who lost her 2018 Asian Games gold medal and served a just-ended 4-year ban after testing positive for stanozolol in early 2019, was back at age 30 and faster than ever, breaking her own pre-ban Asian Games record from way back in 2014 to win in 54.45. With a packed 80,000-capacity stadium, many were the eyes that rolled.
China's Jiadie Mo was also under Adekoya's old Games record at 55.01 but had to settle for celebrating silver in front of her tens of thousands of home ground supporters. Indian Vithya Ramraj won bronze in 55.68, continue India's remarkably good showing at these Games. Japan's Ami Yamamoto was 7th in 57.66.
Kazuki Kurokawa looked to be in position for a medal in the men's 400 mH against African-born Qataris Abderrahman Alsaleck and Bassem Hemeida, but he was caught by China's Zhiyu Xie after the last hurdle and dropped to 4th. Alsaleck won gold in 48.04, Hemeida clocking a PB 48.52 for silver and Xie beating Kurokawa by just 0.05 for bronze in 49.16. Yusaku Kodama initially finished 7th but was disqualified when it was ruled he hadn't properly cleared one hurdle.
In the absence of world champion Haruka Kitaguchi, women's javelin throw gold went to India's Annu Rani, who threw a 62.92 m SB. Sri Lankan Nadeesha Lekamge bettered China's Huihui Lyu for silver with a 61.57 m PB, Lyu throwing 61.29 m on her 5th attempt and knocking Marina Saito, 61.10 m on her opening throw, back to 4th. Sae Takemoto was 6th at 55.39 m.
In qualifying rounds, Ayano Shiomi was the 3rd-fastest overall in the women's 800 m heats in 2:06.37, making it to Wednesday's final. China's Chuyu Wang was fastest at 2:05.37 with Sri Lanka's Tharushi Mudiyanselage next at 2:05.48.
Complete results here. The Hangzhou Asian Games continue through Thursday.
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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