Qatar’s Femi Ogunode celebrates his win in the 200m event yesterday. Right: Qatari quartet of Mohamed E, Femi Ogunode, Abdelilah Haroun Hassan and Musaab Bala won the men’s 4x400m relay final at the Asian Athletics Championship in Wuhan, China, yesterday. (Facebook/Asian Athletics Championship)

Agencies/Wuhan, China

Qatar’s Femi Ogunode added two more gold medals even as high jump star Mutaz Essa Barshim had to settle for bronze on the final day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Wuhan, China, yesterday.
Musaab Bala added another gold for Qatar after he successfully defended his 800m title.
A heavy downpour washed away the high hopes of the Asian record-holder Barshim as he failed in all his three attempts to clear 2.24m, a height normally considered as a walk in the park for the World Leading athlete of the season.
Barshim, who has cleared 2.40m or more eight times in the last two years, only managed 2.20m. Barshim holds the Asian Record at 2.43m and came to Wuhan with his World Leading 2.41m from Eugene Diamond League meet on May 30.
Yesterday, he settled behind Japan’s Takashi Eto and Hsiang Chun-Hsieng of Chinese Taipei, who jumped identical 2.24m for their gold and silver medals respectively.
“The rain disturbed my concentration. Moreover I could not warm-up properly due to rain,” admitted Barshim.
The Qatari star now heads to Oslo for June 11 Bislett Games, his next stop in IAAF Diamond League.
Meanwhile, sprinter Ogunode won the 200m (20.32 secs) and went on to anchor Qatar’s 4x400m relay quartet to a national record 3:02.50. The relay time was also a new Championship Record.
Saudi Arabia’s F. al-Subaie (20.63) and India’s Dharambir Singh (20.66 NR) were the other medallists in the 200m event.
Bala clocked 1:49.40 for his 800m win while Jinson Johnson of India was a close second with a time of 1:49.69.
Qatari athletes had a successful run on the track at the Wuhan event. Mohamed al-Garni became only the second athlete ever to win a rare 1500-5000m double in the Asian championships history, first being compatriot Mohamed Suleiman in 1991 at Kuala Lumpur.
Kazakhstan sprinters, Viktoriya Zyabkina (23.09) and Olga Safronova (23.46), grabbed the top two spots in the women’s 200m events while India’s Srabani Nanda (23.54) took bronze.
Running with her trademark start to finish leading run, India’s Tintu Luka pocketed her first ever international gold medal in the women’s race in a time of 2:01.53, narrowly missing the Rio Olympics qualification. China’s Zhao Jing (2:03.40) overwhelmed Sri Lankan Nimali Klarachchige (2:03.94) at the waning stages of the race for silver.
Hosts China accounted for medal sweeps for women’s triple jump and shot put. Triple jumper Wang Wupin (13.76m) and shot putter Guo Tianqian (18.59m) were on top in their respective events. Besides them, China were 1-2 in javelin throw with Liu Shiying taking the gold with a new meet mark of 61.33m.
Incheon Asiad winner Alia Mohamed Saeed (UAE) repeated her golden act in women’s 10,000m with another championship record in 31:52.29. It was her second medal in this championship after a silver behind her teammate Betlhem Desalegn in 5000m.
Defending champion India went down to China in the women’s 4x400m relay as their anchor Poovamma was troubled by the rain in the last stages of the race. The Chinese capitalise to win in 3:33.44 against the Indians’ 3:33.81.
Japan’s Akihiko Nakamura, a bronze medallist in the Asian Games at Incheon and a silver medallist in the last two editions of the Asian Championships, won gold in men’s decathlon garnering 7,773 points.
China finished the event on top of the medal standings with 15 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals. The hosts were followed by Qatar (7-2-1), India (4-5-4), Japan (4-3-11), Bahrain (3-3-2) and United Arab Emirates (3-1-0).