|
|
Qatari’s Samuel Francis failed to live up to the hype surrounding him as he was beaten by Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian in the 100m final at the Asian Athletics Championships here yesterday.
Francis, who holds the Asian 100m record, clocked 10.27 seconds yesterday and had to be content with the silver medal after Su clocked 10.17. Barakat al-Harthi of Oman picked up the bronze with a time of 10.30 seconds. Su retained the men’s title he won two years ago, finishing in 10.17 seconds, which was slower than the 10.06 he ran at home in Beijing in May.
Su and Francis were the chief contenders for the title after Japan’s teenage sprint sensation Yoshihide Kiryu, who clocked a junior world record equalling time of 10.01 seconds in April, opted to skip the meet.
The women’s 100m sprint was also won by China, with Wei Wongli cruising to victory in 11.29 seconds after a false start had disqualified Komalam Shally of Malaysia. Chisato Fukushima of Japan was second in 11.53 seconds, while China’s Tao Yujia came in third at 11.63 seconds.
Qatar Ahmed al-Mughani took the bronze in the discus throw which was won by India’s Vikas Gowda. Gowda, who turns 30 today, threw the iron disc to a creditable 64.90m in his fourth attempt to win his first gold of the Asian Championships in his fifth appearances. He had won a silver each in the 2005 and 2011 editions.
Mohamed Samimi of Iran claimed the silver with a throw of 61.93m, while al-Mughani was third.
With this win, Gowda has booked a berth for next month’s World Championships in Moscow as each of the winner in the ongoing Asian meet automatically qualifies for the global mega event.
Meanwhile, Yousef Ahmed Masrahi of Saudi Arabia defended his men’s 400m title in 45.08 seconds, with Ali Khamis of Bahrain taking the silver in 45.65 seconds.
Yuzo Kanemaru of Japan, who was expected to provide a tough challenge to Masrahi, finished third in 45.95 seconds.
China’s Zhao Yanmin recorded a personal best timing of 52.49 seconds to win the women’s 400m title. Gold medallists at the Asian meet are guaranteed a direct entry into next month’s world championships in Moscow.
But the absence of many of the continent’s top athletes, including world number one high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, has robbed the Pune meet of its star value.
India had hopes of winning gold in the women’s 400m but Poovamma, running on a big stage for the first time, finished second in 53.37 seconds.
China’s Zhao Yanmin won the gold in 52.49 seconds while Taslakian Gretta of Lebanon got the bronze in 53.43 secs.
Uzbekistan’s Nadia Dusanova became the first athlete from her country to win the event in 1.90m. Dusanova’s teammate and pre-event favourite Svetlana Radzivil pocketed the silver after sailing over 1.88m, the same height the bronze medallist Marina Aitova also achieved.
As expectedly, 2004 Athens Olympics bronze-medallist Dmitry Karpov of Kazakhstan won the decathlon event with 8037 aggregate points — new championship record.