Hossein Rasouli in the discus at the Asian Junior Championships (© Organisers)
On Saturday (9), the penultimate day of action at the Asian Junior Championships in Gifu, Iran’s Hossein Rasouli produced one of the biggest upsets of the championships so far.
The relative newcomer was up against Qatar’s defending champion and world U20 champion Mouad Mohamed Ibrahim Moaaz, who leads this year’s world U20 list with 66.47m. Rasouli wasted no time making his intentions known and sent his disc flying out to 61.55m with his opening throw, breaking the championship record Moaaz had set when winning in 2016.
Moaaz, who opened with a foul, responded with 59.66m in round two and 61.50m in round three to close the gap, but that remained his best mark of the competition. Rasouli, meanwhile, wasn’t finished and ended his series with an improvement on his championship record, throwing 62.29m to secure the title.
That was the only championship record that was broken on Saturday, but another was equalled.
Japan’s Yuiri Yoshida won the women’s 100m hurdles in 13.45 to equal a championship record that had stood since 1990.
World U18 silver medallist Hao-Hua Lu won the men’s sprint hurdles with a PB of 13.61.
The women’s long jump was the closest competition of the championships so far.
China’s Zhong Jiawei led from round one with 6.21m and improved to 6.26m in round four. Japan’s Ayaka Kora then went flying out to a lifetime best of 6.44m in round five to snatch the lead, but Zhong matched that mark with the very next jump of the competition and regained the lead on countback.
Kora didn’t improve in the final round, but her 6.27m leap in round six was enough to take back the advantage on countback. Zhong registered a foul with the final jump of the competition, meaning Kora held on to the gold medal.
The host nation picked up two more medals in the women’s 800m as Ayaka Kawata led a Japanese 1-2 finish from Ayano Shiomi, 2:04.14 to 2:04.50.
China, however, enjoyed a more successful Saturday as Wu Zhoucheng won the women’s pole vault with 4.00m, world U18 champion Liu Zhekai won the men’s javelin with 70.53m, Yang Huanhuan successfully defended her discus title with 51.53m and the Chinese women’s 4x100m team struck gold with 45.06.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
