DOHA, QATAR, April 21-24—No one has ever run the 400 hurdles as fast as early as Abderrahmane Samba did in winning the Asian Championships on his home track. Last year’s No. 1 World Ranker blazed through the first 7 barriers at 13 strides before downshifting to 14 on his way to a sparkling 47.51 that won by a hefty 1.41 seconds. “It’s fast,” he admitted, “but I’m thinking about something much faster than this. But yes, it’s a great start.” He clarified, “Last year I started with 47.9 and finished with 46.9. This season I started with 47.5 so I want to end with 46.5.” Which would put him significantly under the 46.78 global standard that Kevin Young has held for the last 27 years.
Samba’s countryman Abubaker Haydar Abdalla was impressive in the 800 his outdoor-leading 1:44.33 winning by 2.55 seconds. An outdoor world leader also went to Syria’s Majed El Dein Ghazal in the high jump, who cleared 7-7 (2.31) for his first international gold, before taking two shots at 7-8½ (2.35) and one at 7-9¼ (2.37).
Absolute world leaders went to Taiwan’s Chao-Tsun Cheng, who launched the javelin 284-6 (86.72), and China’s Wenjun Xie, who easily captured the 110H with a PR 13.21.
Salwa Eid Naser dominated the highlights reel for the women. The Bahraini sprinter won gold in the 400 (51.34), bronze in the 4×1, gold in the mixed-sex 4×4, gold in the 200 (22.74 PR)—and two hours after that furlong, produced a 49.70 anchor to capture gold in the 4×4: 4 days, 5 medals, 4 of them gold.
Not surprisingly, China captured all of the women’s throws, with golds from Lijiao Gong (62-11¼/19.18), discus thrower Bin Feng (214-5/65.36 PR), hammer thrower Zheng Wang (248-3/75.66), and javelinist Huihui Lu (215-11/65.83).
ASIAN CHAMPS MEN’S MEDALISTS
Doha, Qatar, April 21-24—
(4/21—100h, St, 10K, PV, DT; 4/22—100, 400, 800, 400H, TJ, SP, JT; 4/23—4×1)
100(1.5): 1. Yoshihide Kiryu (Jpn) 10.10; 2. Lalu Muhammad Zohri (Ina) 10.13 NR; 3. Zhiqiang Wu (Chn) 10.18 PR.
200(1.7): 1. Zhenye Xie (Chn) 20.33; 2. Yuki Koike (Jpn) 20.55; 3. Mohamed Yacoub Salem (Bhr) 20.84.
400: 1. Youssef Mohamed Dagher (Kuw) 44.84 NR; 2. Abbas Abubaker (Bhr) 45.14 PR; 3. Mikhail Litvin (Kaz) 45.25 NR.
800: 1. Abubaker Haydar Abdalla (Qat) 1:44.33 PR (out WL);
2. Ibrahim Renoud Al-Zafairi (Kuw) 1:46.88 PR; 3. Jamal Al-Hayrani (Qat) 1:47.27.
1500: 1. Abraham Rotich (Bhr) 3:42.85; 2. Ajay Kumar Saroj (Ind) 3:43.18; 3. Adam Ali Musaab (Qat) 3:43.18.
St: 1. John Koech (Bhr) 8:25.87 (WL);
2. Avinash Sable (Ind) 8:30.19; 3. Kazuya Shiojiri (Jpn) 8:32.25.
5000: 1. Birhanu Yemataw (Bhr) 13:37.42; 2. Albert Rop (Bhr) 13:37.57; 3. Hiroki Matsueda (Jpn) 13:45.44.
10,000: 1. Dawit Fikadu (Bhr) 28:26.30 PR; 2. Hassan Chani (Bhr) 28:31.30; 3. Gavit Murli Kumar (Ind) 28:38.34 PR.
110H(1.7): 1. Wenjun Xie (Chn) 13.21 PR (WL);
2. Yaqoub Al-Yoha (Kuw) 13.35 NR; 3. Kuei-Ju Chen (Tai) 13.39 =NR.
400H: 1. Abderrahmane Samba (Qat) 47.51 (WL);
2. Chieh Chen (Tai) 48.92 PR; 3. M.P. Jabir (Ind) 49.13 PR.
4 x 100: 1. Thailand 38.99 (Sowan, Chuangchai, Meenapra, Punpa); 2. Taipei 39.18; 3. Oman 39.36 =NR.
4 x 400: 1. Japan 3:02.94 (Walsh, Sato, Ito, Wakabayashi); 2. China 3:03.55 NR; 3. Qatar 3:03.95.
Field Events
HJ: 1. Majed El Dein Ghazal (Syr) 7-7 (2.31) (=out WL);
2. Takashi Eto (Jpn) 7-6 (2.29); 3. Naoto Tobe (Jpn) 7-5 (2.26).
PV: 1. Ernest John Obiena (Phi) 18-8¾ (5.71) NR; 2. Wei Zhang (Chn) 18-6¾ (5.66); 3. Bokai Huang (Chn) 18-6¾.
LJ: 1. Yuki Hashioka (Jpn) 26-11¾ (8.22) PR; 2. Yaoguang Zhang (Chn) 26-8¼ (8.13); 3. Changzhou Huang (Chn) 26-1¾ (7.97).
TJ: 1. Ruslan Kurbanov (Uzb) 55-6½ (16.93) PR; 2. Yaming Zhu (Chn) 55-4¼w (16.87) (55-¾/16.78); 3. Xiaolong Xu (Chn) 55-2 (16.81).
SP: 1. Tejinder Pal Singh (Ind) 66-4¼ (20.22); 2. Jiaxing Wu (Chn) 65-8¾ (20.03) PR; 3. Ivan Ivanov (Kaz) 62-7¾ (19.09).
DT: 1. Ehsan Hadadi (Irn) 216-4 (65.95); 2. Behnam Shiri (Irn) 199-9 (60.89); 3. Musaeb Al-Momani (Jor) 191-2 (58.27).
HT: 1. Dilshod Nazarov (Tjk) 249-10 (76.14); 2. Ashraf Amjad Al-Saifi (Qat) 242-0 (73.76); 3. Sukhrob Khodyayev (Uzb) 239-0 (72.85).
JT: 1. Chao-Tsun Cheng (Tai) 284-6 (86.72) (WL) (f, 284-6, 273-10, p, p, p) (f, 86.72, 83.46, p, p, p);
2. Shivpal Singh (Ind) 282-11 (86.23) PR (265-4, 282-11, f, 262-4, 267-0, 254-2) (80.89, 86.23, f, 79.96, 81.39, 77.48);
3. Ryohei Arai (Jpn) 268-9 (81.93).
Dec(4/22-23): 1. Keisuke Ushiro (Jpn) 7872; 2. Majed Radhi Mubarak Al-Sayed (Kuw) 7838 PR; 3. Akihiko Nakamura (Jpn) 7837.
ASIAN CHAMPS WOMEN’S MEDALISTS
(4/21—400, 5K, SP, JT; 4/22—100, 800, 400H, LJ, HT; 4/23—St, 10K, 4×1, HJ, PV, TJ)
100(1.8): 1. Olga Safronova (Kaz) 11.17; 2. Xiaojing Liang (Chn) 11.28; 3. Yongli Wei (Chn) 11.37.
200(1.2): 1. Salwa Eid Naser (Bhr) 22.74 PR; 2. Safronova 22.87; 3. Dutee Chand (Ind) 23.24.
400: 1. Naser 51.34; 2. Elina Mikhina (Kaz) 53.19; 3. Machettira Raju Poovamma (Ind) 53.21.
800: 1. Marimuthu Gomathi (Ind) 2:02.70 PR; 2. Chunyu Wang (Chn) 2:02.96; 3. Margarita Mukasheva (Kaz) 2:03.83.
1500: 1. P. Unnikrishnan Chithra (Ind) 4:14.56; 2. Tigist Gashaw (Bhr) 4:14.81; 3. Winfred Yavi (Bhr) 4:16.18 PR.
St: 1. Winfred Yavi (Bhr) 9:46.18; 2. Shuangshuang Xu (Chn) 9:51.76; 3. Tigist Mekonen (Bhr) 9:53.96.
5000: 1. Winfred Yavi (Bhr) 15:28.87 PR; 2. Bontu Edao Rebitu (Bhr) 15:29.60; 3. Parul Chaudhary (Ind) 15:36.03 PR.
10,000: 1. Shitaye Eshete (Bhr) 31:15.62; 2. Hitomi Niiya (Jpn) 31:22.63; 3. Sanjivani Jadhav (Ind) 32:44.96 PR.
100H(1.3): 1. Ayako Kimura (Jpn) 13.13; 2. Jiamin Chen (Chn) 13.24 PR; 3. Masumi Aoki (Jpn) 13.28.
400H: 1. Thi Lan Quach (Vie) 56.10; 2. Aminat Yusuf Jamal Odeyemi (Bhr) 56.39; 3. Sarita Gayakwad (Ind) 57.22.
4 x 100: 1. China 42.87 (WL) (Liang, Wei, Kong, Ge);
2. Kazakhstan 43.36; 3. Bahrain 43.61.
4 x 400: 1. Bahrain 3:32.10 (Odeyemi, Jassim, Mohamed, Naser); 2. India 3:32.21; 3. Japan 3:34.88.
Field Events
HJ: 1. Nadezhda Dusanova (Uzb) 6-2¾ (1.90); 2. Nadezhda Dubovitskaya (Kaz) 6-2 (1.88) PR; 3. Svetlana Radzivil (Uzb) 6-2 (1.88).
PV: 1. Ling Li (Chn) 15-1½ (4.61); 2. Huiqin Xu (Chn) 14-3½ (4.36); 3. Natalie Uy (Phi) 13-9¼ (4.20).
LJ: 1. Minjia Lu (Chn) 20-11¼ (6.38); 2. Ayaka Kora (Jpn) 20-2½ (6.16); 3. Ya Xin Yue (HK) 20-2¼ (6.15).
TJ: 1. Parinya Chuaimaroeng (Tha) 45-¼ (13.72); 2. Rui Zeng (Chn) 44-9½ (13.65); 3. H.D. Viduka Lakshani (SrL) 44-4¾ (13.53).
SP: 1. Lijiao Gong (Chn) 62-11¼ (19.18); 2. Noora Salem Jassem (Bhr) 59-¾ (18.00) NR; 3. Jiayuan Song (Chn) 58-1 (17.70).
DT: 1. Bin Feng (Chn) 214-5 (65.36) PR; 2. Yang Chen (Chn) 203-0 (61.87); 3. Subenrat Insaeng (Tha) 190-11 (58.20).
HT: 1. Zheng Wang (Chn) 248-3 (75.66); 2. Na Luo (Chn) 236-11 (72.23); 3. Akane Watanabe (Jpn) 208-5 (63.54).
JT: 1. Huihui Lu (Chn) 215-11 (65.83); 2. Annu Rani (Ind) 197-7 (60.22); 3. Nuttha Nacharn (Tha) 183-9 (56.01).
Hept(4/22-23): 1. Yekaterina Voronina (Uzb) 6198 NR (14.57, 6-0/1.83, 44-8¾/13.63, 24.94, 19-2½/5.85, 175-7/53.53, 2:15.26); 2. Swapana Barman (Ind) 5993; 3. Qingling Wang (Chn) 5829. ◻︎
