By Yash Mudgal/Doha
Chinese girls and Indian boys hogged the limelight on the second day of the first Asian Youth Athletics Championships held yesterday.
Chinese girls dominated the day by winning all the four gold medals at the stake along with two silver and one bronze, while Indian boys clinched two gold and one silver medal.
Chinese girls started the day with a one-two finish in the 5000m walk as Ma Zhenxi clocked 23:45.19 to beat compatriot Qaiji Zhouma (24:05.84) for the gold and ended the day’s proceedings with 100M hurdles gold won by Deng Xuelin in 13.62s.
In the boys section, India’s Beant Singh and Tadwi Kishan Narshi delivered dominant performances to win 800m and 3,000m gold medals. R Rajesh won the third medal of the day for India when he garnered 5867 points to win silver medal in the decathlon.
Beant strode to a comfortable victory and stamped his class by winning the gold in style. He led from start to finish and registered a timing of 1:52.26 almost three seconds ahead of the second placed Mohamed Raheem Zghair al-Bazanah of Irq (1:54.92). The bronze went to Safeed Hassan Olwani of Saudi Arabia, who clocked 1:55.84.
“I am very happy with my performance today. I was trying to break Indian record, but I think I missed it,” said Beant.
Beant had posted a world leading time in 800m during the Senior Open Nationals at New Delhi recently, eclipsed the national mark in 1,000m in the under-16 category with a superb time of 2:27.87.
“I have only been in athletics for a short time, two or three years. I was in wrestling just for fun before and World Champion and Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar guided me to take athletics seriously. It was at this moment that I noticed I had a talent for middle distance running and I was encouraged to switch to athletics. Sushil is a very big inspiration for me,” he said.
“I have set big expectations for myself. I know I can run under 1:50. I have done it in training and I aim to run it at the championships. Today’s victory will give me confidence for my next competitions – Youth World Championship in Cali and World School Games,” the 16-year-old Haryana runner said.
Singh’s was India’s first gold medal at the championships, after one silver and two bronze medals on the opening day.
Liu Ziyue and Shang Ningyu also won golds for China as they won girls shot put and hammer throw event, respectively. Liu Exuerun won shot put bronze, while Yao Kailun won the silver in hammer throw. Girls’ 100M hurdles silver went to Hong Kong’s Lam Yan Tung (14.22), while
Chinese Taipei’s Hsiaq Hui Lin (14.24) won bronze. Japan’s Kana Kimura won the bronze.
In the boys long jump Kim Youngbin of Korea won the gold with a jump of 7.49 in his fifth attempt and pushed Japan’s Sakki Yugo of Japan to the second spot, whose best was 7.31 in his third. Jose Jerry Belibestre of the Philippines won the bronze with his best effort of 7.26, which came in his fifth try.
India’s Beant Singh (top) delivered a dominant performance to win the 800m gold medal yesterday. Pictures: Jayaram
