Asian Championships, Day One

World Junior champion Ehsan Hadadi of Iran posted an Asian record of 65.25 metres on way to upstaging a clutch of favourites and clinching the men’s Discus Throw gold on the opening day of the 16th Asian Athletics Championships here today.

Iran’s victory

The 20-year-old Iranian came up with an opening throw that went beyond all the markers on the field, indicating various records, and from then on, everyone else in the fray was under pressure to produce one big throw that never came. As it often happens after such a first-round throw, the others tried to stretch themselves and in the process fouled.

To go out of the final without a mark against his name was the defending champion, Wu Tao of China. The favourite, Indian Vikas Gowda, took the silver with an opening round throw of 62.84m, while the second Indian in the field, the more experienced Anil Kumar, claimed the bronze with just 59.95m.

Hadadi is now the proud owner of three titles, the World junior, the Asian junior and now the Asian senior title. He had come into the spotlight from nowhere, so to say, at Grosseto, Italy, last year when he threw 62.14m (1.75kg discus) for the World junior gold, his country’s first ever medal at a global athletics meet.

Still, with an IAAF World Ranking of 42, as against Vikas Gowda’s 27 or the Chinese Wu Tao’s 28 or countryman Abbas Samimi’s 37, Hadadi was by no means a major medal contender. He was the dark horse all right and he proved his credentials with that gold-winning opening throw that bettered Chinese Li Shaojie’s 1996 continental record of 65.16 metres.

Three golds for China

It was a day that the Chinese dominated, rather expectedly, otherwise. They took three of the five gold medals on offer, all in the women’s section, with Bai Xue, the 17-year-old newcomer, claiming the 10,000 metres (see photo), Xie Limei upsetting team-mate Huang Qiyuan for the Triple Jump gold, and Li Meiju winning a routine Shot Put title.

Low arm carriage

In the 10,000m, Chinese Bai Xue reminded one of Sun Yingjie, with her arm action or rather the lack of it. Sun Yingjie and Xing Huina have not made it here, but it is clear China has talent aplenty in women’s distance running. The fact that Bai Xue finished only 12th in the 10,000m (eighth in the 5000 metres) in the National championship in June, should give us an idea about the depth of talent. She had then clocked 34:54.54 but timed 33:34.74 today in conditions that were not ideal for distance running because of the high humidity content.

Bai Xue and Sato broke off from the leading group that also contained North Korean Ham Pong Sil and Chinese Chen Xiaofang, with eight laps to go. Bai Xue shook off the challenge of the Japanese with one and a half laps left and finished nearly 50 metres ahead. Ham Pong Sil claimed the bronze.

Triple Jump Shock

Huang Qiyuan’s third place in the women’s Triple Jump was a shock since she had led the Area season lists with an Asian record of 14.72m and was also the defending champion and a finalist at the Helsinki World championships. Today she was down to 13.75 metres in the fifth round. She had two fouls.

Xie Limei also had her best in the fifth round, 14.38 after she had taken over the lead in the previous round with a 14.24. Uzbek Anastasiya Zhuravlyeva once again settled for the silver, like last time, with a 14.14.

Straight-forward Shot win

The women’s shot put contest went on expected pattern as far as the gold medal was concerned, with Li Meiju making it a no-contest with an opening round 18.64 metres. She had an 18.27 and four fouls, but the gold was hers.

The surprise was the silver for Singapore’s Zhang Guirong, a former Chinese, who reached 18.57 metres in the second round to push Chinese Li Ling (18.04) to the third place.

Japan takes 1500m title

The one gold that got away in the women’s division was the women’s 1500m which the Japanese Miho Sugimori won without too many problems, running from the front and making sure that the ‘kickers’ would be hard put to chase her down the finishing straight.

Liu Xiang and Shi Dongpeng are easy qualifiers

The focus during early afternoon action was on Olympic champion Liu Xiang as he negotiated the preliminary round of the 110m hurdles with customary ease, clocking 13.65 seconds. Teammate Shi Dongpeng won the other heat in 13.88 seconds.

Also in the limelight were two of the Japanese, who rarely make it to this meet, sprinters Shingo Suetsugu and Nobuharu Asahara. Both made it to the final of the 100 metres, though the better timings were returned by Khalid Yousuf Al-Obaidili of Qatar (10.36) and Yahya Al Ghes of Saudi Arabia (10.40). Suetsugu (10.44) and Asahara (10.45) came second in their semi-final heats but should be serious gold medal contenders in tomorrow’s final.

Surprise in the 400m first round

The elimination of Kuwaiti Fawzi Al-Shammari in the first round of the men’s 400 metres was a big surprise. He finished sixth in 47.83 in a heat won by Japanese Yuki Yamaguchi in 46.56s. Al-Shammari had won the 400m and the 200m at the last Asian meet and was the 400m winner in the Busan Asian Games. Favourite Hamdan Al-Bishi of Saudi Arabia qualified for the final, coming second to Sri Lankan Rohan Pradeep Kumara.

By an IAAF Correspondent in Korea

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RESULTS (finals only): Thu 1 Sept 2005

Men:

Discus Throw: 1. Ehsan Hadadi (Iri) 65.25, 2. Vikas Gowda (Ind) 62.84, 3. Anil Kumar (Ind) 59.95.

Women:

1500m: 1. Miho Sugimori (Jpn) 4:12.69, 2. Svetlana Lukasheva (Kaz) 4:13.83, 3. Yuriko Kobayashi (Jpn) 4:14.15.

10,000m: 1. Bai Xue (Chn) 33:34.74, 2. Yumi Sato (Jpn) 33:42.11, 3. Ham Pong Sil (PRK) 34:35.30.
Triple Jump: 1. Xie Limei (Chn) 14.38m, 2. Anastasiya Juravleva (Uzb) 14.14, 3. Huang Qiuyan (Chn) 13.75;

Shot Put: 1. Li Meiju (Chn) 18.64m, 2. Zhang Guirong (Sin) 18.57, 3. Li Ling (Chn) 18.04.