Samuel Francis with his Asian Indoor Championships 60m gold (© Elshadai Negash)
A rush of championship records and three gold medals for Kazakhstan were the highlights of the opening day of action at the 3rd Asian Indoor Championships (14-16 Feb 2008) in Doha, Qatar on Thursday (14-Feb).
On a busy day of action that saw nine gold medals decided, Qatar’s Samuel Francis showed why he is Asia’s top sprinter with another dominant performance in the men’s 60m, while Bahrain’s Ruqaya Al Ghasara completed the first half of a possible sprint double with victory in the women’s 60m.
And China’s Chen Yeling created the shock of the championships so far after coming from behind to beat India’s former World outdoor championship bronze medallist Anju Bobby George in the women’s Long Jump.
Comfortable 6.62 win for Francis
The name Samuel Francis may not be a top name in the world of sprinting at the moment, but the 20-year old former Nigerian is fast building himself a reputation as Asia’s fastest man.
After his first year running for Qatar where he improved the Asian outdoor 100m record to 9.99 and the indoor record to 6.54, he made easy work of outsprinting Asia’s best yet again here with a comfortable 6.62 effort, a championship record although he looked like he could have run faster.
“I was not in the mood today,” he said after picking up his fourth continental title after victories in the Asian outdoors, World Military Games, and the Asian Indoor Games in 2007. “My body was not ready for fast action.”
Hong Kong’s Leung Chun Wai and Muravyev Vyacheslav of Kazkhstan ran season’s best times to complete the podium finish behind the flying Qatari.
Rypakov leads Kazakhstan gold hat trick
Apart from Francis’ dominance on the boards, the day largely belonged to Kazakhstan who bagged three gold medals to storm to the top of the medals table on the opening day.
Asian Games Heptathlon champion Olga Rypakov got the medal count on the way with victory in the women’s Triple Jump. The 23-year old had the competition won with a 13.90m jump on her second attempt. But after continuous improvements, she then leapt to 14.23m, more than 30cm further than compatriot Yelena Parfenova’s championship record mark set in Bangkok two years ago.
Her victory seemed to spur on training partner Irina Naumenko who was trailing Thailand’s Wassana Winatho after two events in the women’s Pentathlon. Winatho had preserved her lead in the first four events, but Naumenko snatched victory in the very last event, the 800m, to take the overall title.
High jumper Sergey Zassimovich was perhaps the calmest winner on the day. Locked in a two-way battle with Syria’s Majed Ghazal after the pair had cleared 2.21m, the 21-year-old then showed calm to clear 2.24m on his last attempt for a Kazakhstan national indoor record.
“I was hoping for 2.30 here,” said the tall Kazakh who already has the Olympic A standard for his event. “It was a difficult victory here, but I want to jump better than this in Valencia [World Indoors].”
Chen shocks George
The biggest surprise of the day’s action came in the women’s Long Jump where China’s Chen Yeling defeated India’s 2003 World outdoor championships bronze medallist Anju Bobby George.
Despite not hitting top form, George looked odds on favourite to win gold here after the first four attempts. George improved to 6.38 on her fifth attempt and jumped a half-hearted 6.37 on her last attempt before Yeling leaped to 6.39 to take victory by one centimetre.
“No I was not surprised by victory,” confirmed the winner. “I was expecting to jump better than this because I wanted to qualify for Valencia [A standard 6.65m].”
Al Ghasara takes 60m, Paulose 1500m
Ruqaya Al Ghasara, running in long tights and wearing a hijab, became the first Bahrain woman of Bahraini origin to win an Asian Games gold fifteen months ago at the Khalifa stadium just a few meters from the Aspire Dome here. And the home crowd once again warmed up to her familiar face as she kicked off her season with victory in the 60m.
It was a familiar story for Al Ghasara who started slowly but established her rhythm in the final 20m for victory. Her winning time of 7.40 improved the championship record held by China’s Zhu Yingting (7.41) by one hundredths of a second.
Her record breaking feat continued in the 400m qualifiers where she lowered Tatyana Roslanova’s in the faster of two races. She will hope to complete a remarkable double here tomorrow when she lines up in the two lap race.
India’s Sinimol Paulose comfortably defended her 1500m title here with a run-away victory over compatriot Devi Sushma. Shadowed by Bahrain’s Sara Bakheet Yacoob for the first half of the race, the 21-year-old opened up a sizable lead with four laps to go before taking victory in 4:15.42. Sushma caught Yacoob two laps before the end to make it a famous one-two for India.
In the day’s other final finals, China’s Gong Lijiao took the women’s Shot Put, while NishiKori Ikuko was the winner in the women’s Pole Vault.
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
