The Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got moving with a silver in the men's 20 km race walk from #2 ranked Kento Yoshikawa, part of a breakaway trio with China's Wang Zhaozhao and India's Servin Sebasthiyan. The #1-ranked Wang pulled away in the last km to win in 1:20:37, Yoshikawa close behind in 1:20:46 and Sebasthiyan taking bronze in 1:21:14. Ryo Hamanishi was just out of the medals in 4th in 1:21:58.
China's Su Lingdan was untouchable in the women's javelin throw with a 63.29 m PB for gold, but Momone Ueda and Sae Takemoto took silver and bronze. Ueda threw a season best 59.39 m on her final attempt, overtaking Takemoto's 4th-round 58.94 m.
Another bronze came in the women's triple jump. China's Li Yi beat Uzbekistan's Sharifa Davronova by 6 cm for gold 13.80 m to 13.74 m, with Mariko Morimoto beating Maoko Takashima by 1 cm for bronze. Morimoto was 13.65 m on her 5th jump, but although Takashima came back with a big final attempt she was just short at 13.64 m.
Japan's last medal of the day came in the men's 10000 m. Outkicked by India's Gulveer Singh twice last fall, Japan's Mebuki Suzuki set things up in the first half of the men's 10000 m, then dropped back to tuck in behind Singh in the lead pack of 5. He waited until the last 1000 m to make a move, and Singh and their only other real competition, Bahraini Kenyan Albert Rop, went with him. Suzuki had shown that he's been working on his closing speed in winning last month's 10000 m National Championships, but even though he matched Singh over the first half of the last lap there was nothing he could do as Singh pulled away over the last 200 m to win in 28:38.63. Suzuki was next in 28:43.84, Rop close behind in 28:46.82 for bronze.
No luck for the Japanese women in the 20 km race walk, where China's ;Yin Hang dominated with a 1:30:44 for gold. Teammate Ma Li and Kazakhstan's Yasmina Toxanbayeva had a close race for silver, Ma taking it by 14 seconds in 1:32:08. Japan's Ayane Yanai and Yukiko Umeno were 4th and 5th in 1:33:15 and 1:36:31.
China took the top 2 spots in the women's hammer throw as well, Ji Li scoring gold at 72.98 m and Li Jiangyan silver at 69.13 m. Taiwan's Ya Chien Yu was bronze at 64.25 m with another 4-5 placing for the Japanese women, Joy McArthur 4th at 63.61 m and Raika Murakami 5th at 63.60 m.
In the decathlon, Japan's Yuma Maruyama sat in 2nd at the end of the first day with 4065 points, winning the 100 m in 10.92 (-0.8). Indian Tejaswin Shankar led day one overall with 4205 points, China's Fei Xiang 3rd at 3875 and Japan's Keisuke Okuda in 6th at 3722 despite winning the 400 m.
In qualifying rounds:
- Naoto Hasegawa and Tomohiro Shinno both cleared 2.10 m to easily move on to the men's high jump final.
- Nanami Arai and Kazuto Iizawa both moved on in the men's 1500 m, Arai winning heat 1 in 3:46.92 and Iizawa 2nd in heat 2 in 3:50.35.
- Fuga Sato and Kentaro Sato both got through the opening heats in the men's 400 m without problems in 46.40 and 46.58. In the semifinals Fuga had the fastest time overall in 45.74 to win SF 2, Kentaro 2nd in SF2 in 46.19.
- Nanako Matsumoto was 0.10 off her PB in the women's 400 m heats, running 52.24 to lead the field. No other woman went under 53, and with no semifinal for women Matsumoto looks like one of Japan's best chances for gold.
- Aiha Yamagata and Midori Mikase both made it through the women's 100 m heats, Yamagata the fastest time qualifier in 11.53 (+0.9) for 3rd in heat 1 and Mikase winning heat 2 in 11.57 (-0.4).
- No problems for the Japanese men in the 100 m heats either. Gold medal contender Hiroki Yanagita won heat 5 in 10.25 (+1.4), Akihiro Higashida taking 2nd in Heat 3 in 10.29 (+1.4).
Streaming of the second day above starts at 9:55 a.m. Wednesday local time. The Asian Championships run through Saturday.
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