Day two of the Gumi Asian Athletics Championships got started with a pair of Japanese medals in the men's hammer throw. China's Wang Qi built up from an opening throw of 69.80 m, throwing further every attempt until his winning 74.50 m in the last round. Shota Fukuda sat in 2nd at 71.89 m after his second attempt, but teammate Tatsuto Nakagawa overtook him with a final throw of 71.97 m for silver, knocking Fukuda back to bronze.
NR holder Misaki Morota took bronze in the women's pole vault, clearing 4.13 m. China's Niu Chunge dominated, tying Morota's NR of 4.48 m for gold, with Xu Huiqin taking silver at 4.23 m. Japan's Akari Osakaya was 6th at 3.98 m.
One of Japan's anticipated golds didn't materialize in the men's 400 m, where Qatari Ammar Ismail Y Ibrahim outran NR holder Kentaro Sato for the win in 45.33. Sato held off Sri Lanka's Kalinda Kumarage for silver 45.50 to 45.55, with Fuga Sato 5th in 45.59. But the first Japanese gold of the games did materialize in the women's 400 m. Nanako Matsumoto followed up her strong run in the heats with a 52.17 for the win, just 0.03 off her PB, beating silver and bronze medalists Rupal Rupal of India and Jonbibi Hukmova of Uzbekistan by over half a second.
10 minutes later Kazuto Iizawa delivered another gold in the men's 1500 m. In a run to the line Iizawa beat South Korean Jaeung Lee for the win in 3:42.56, Lee next in 3:42.79. Yoonus Shah earned bronze for India in 3:43.03, with Nanami Arai 5th in 3:45.65.
The injury-prone Tomoka Kimura had an unexpectedly good run in the women's 1500 m, taking bronze in 4:11.56 behind China's Li Chunhui, gold in 4:10.58, and India's Pooja Pooja, silver in 4:10.83. Yume Goto was far back in 6th in 4:16.52.
The two Japanese women in the 100 m final came up empty-handed in 4th and 5th, Aiha Yamagata missed out by 0.08 in 4th in 11.66 (-0.1), with Midori Mikase 5th in 11.74. Gold went to China yet again, Liang Xiaojing taking the win in 11.37. Singapore and Vietnam both got onto the medal table for the first time, Veronica Shanti Pereira scoring silver in 11.41 and Tran Thi Nhi Yen bronze in 11.54.
Hiroki Yanagita followed up wins in his last two races, Kanto Regionals and the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, with a gold in the men's 100 m. In a photo finish with Thailand's Puripol Boonson Yanagita was timed at 10.194 (+0.6) and Boonson 10.196, with bronze also coming down to a photo finish. In that case it was Saudia Arabia's Abdullah Akbar Mohammed in 10.296 over Oman's Maryam Al Balushi, 10.299. Akihiro Higashida was off his game, only 7th in 10.39.
After sitting in medal contention for most of the two days of the decathlon, Yuma Maruyama was a DNS in the closing 1500 m to drop out of contention. That opened the door for Keisuke Okuda to move into bronze after Okuda had a solid showing in the second day's first four events. Okuda totaled 7602 for bronze, China's Fei Xiang taking gold with 7634 and India's Tejaswin Shankar silver at 7618.
In qualifying rounds:
- Both NR holder Sumire Hata and Maya Takeuchi cleared the qualification round in the women's long jump, Hata leading the field at 6.35 m and Takeuchi just making the cut at 6.05 m.
- Rachid Muratake also led the field in the men's 110 mH heats, running 13.33 (+0.4), and Yumi Tanaka backed that up as the only woman under 13 seconds in the 100 mH heats, running 12.89 (+1.8).
Day three streaming up top starts at 9:50 a.m. local time. The Gumi Asian Athletics Championships run through Saturday.
© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
The management of this event overall seems sub par versus Japanese events that I've watched. They introduce the athletes for the upcoming race (with delay and incorrect name/graphics) before even posting the results of the previous race and you don't even see the winning athletes celebrate or shake hands/hug their competitors because it cuts away. No chance of getting split time graphics either. I think the handling of the Women's 10000m race illustrates how poor the management has been. Surely, the modern weather reports would indicate the possibility of storms/lightning within a specific time frame. They should postpone the event until it is safe. Not start it. Have them run half distance then stop it. Ridiculous. I feel bad for the athletes.
On a positive note, great to see Yuka Kimura run a fantastic 1500m and justify her position in the Japanese team coming in 3rd. Tactically it was a very good race and a Season's Best time. I think this is the best she could have done as she has been relatively inconsistent this season.