Another Asian indoor record and six competition records fell on the second day of the 7th Asian Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, but it was local star Mohamed Al-Garni&rsquo;s successful 1500m title defence that brought the crowd to their feet in the Aspire Dome on Saturday (20).The 23-year-old exuded overwhelming confidence as he broke from a four-man pack 100 metres from the finish, pounding his chest and motioning to the crowd as he breezed down the home straight. It was an early celebration, and perhaps one that he might ruefully regret on reflection, as it added a couple of seconds to his final time and kept him just 0.07 seconds shy of the Asian indoor record. Nevertheless, he clocked a 3:36.35 competition record, the third-fastest performance in the world this season.&ldquo;I could have run faster but I was overwhelmed by the crowd&rsquo;s support and I wasted time celebrating in the final straight,&rdquo; said Al-Garni. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a fantastic feeling to win at home.&rdquo;Bahrain's Benson Seurei, who did most of the early pacing, held off Qatar&rsquo;s Said Aden Said&rsquo;s late charge to take silver, 3:37.08 to 3:37:29. As expected, Oluwakemi Adekoya dominated the women&rsquo;s 400m as the 23-year-old Bahraini notched her second Asian indoor record in as many days.Running in lane five, Adekoya made up the stagger on her chief rival Elina Mikhina to her outside just 100 metres into the race and went on to win by more than two seconds. Her 51.67 performance knocked another 0.01 from the continental indoor record she set in qualifying yesterday.Adekoya confirmed that she&rsquo;ll be competing at the World Indoor Championships but that outdoors her focus would remain on the 400m hurdles.The men&rsquo;s contest went according to the playbook with local star Abdalelah Haroun taking an impressive victory in 45.88, another championship record.&ldquo;I gave all I had left in the tank, but I certainly can go faster,&rdquo; said the 19-year-old Haroun, whose performance was the best Asian indoor time of the year and the fastest U20 indoor outing of 2016. &ldquo;My target here was to win the race, nothing more. Next stop for me is Portland.&rdquo;Bahrain's Abbas Abubaker, also only 19, took the silver in 46.60.<h3>Middle-distance double triumph for Desalegn</h3>Betlhem Desalegn became the championships' first double winner after her resounding triumph in the 3000m. The 24-year-old broke from Bahrain&rsquo;s Ruth Jebet and her UAE teammate Alia Mohamed Saeed with 80 metres remaining en route to her 8:44.59 run, the fourth-fastest time of the year.&ldquo;I needed to push hard, to meet the qualification standard for Portland," said Desalegn, who's been hobbled by achilles-related injuries over the past three seasons. "I am still not 100 percent fit, but I will fight for a medal at the Worlds after finishing sixth (at the 2014 World Indoor Championships) in Sopot."Jebet clocked 8:47.24 to finish second with Saeed (8:48.62) taking bronze.<h3>Huang Bokai takes pole vault title at 5.75m</h3>Following Li Ling's lead from the opening night, Huang Bokai secured another pole vault title for China &ndash; and for their French coach Damien Inocencio &ndash; with a 5.75m championship record, yet another career best for the 19-year-old. Bokai secured the win after topping 5.70m on his second attempt before sailing clear at 5.75m with his first. He later bowed out with three tries at a would-be 5.82m national indoor record.Japanese Seito Yamomoto and Hiroki Ogita topped 5.60m and 5.50m respectively to finish second and third.Likewise, both triple jump titles were claimed for Kazakhstan. In the women&rsquo;s event, Olympic champion Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan took gold as expected, her 14.32m winning leap being the second-best performance of the year.&ldquo;The Asian Championships was a just a break from my Olympics preparation, that&rsquo;s why I wasn&rsquo;t in a very good shape,&rdquo; said Rypakova, who clearly had been hoping for more. She confirmed that she&rsquo;ll be back in Doha for the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting on 8 May.India's long jump winner Mayookha Johny finished second in the triple jump with 14.00m, adding five centimetres to her own national indoor record.Roman Valiyev took top honours on the men&rsquo;s side at 16.69m, comfortably ahead of India&rsquo;s Renjith Maheswary, who was second with 16.16m.Hu Yufei of China leads the men&rsquo;s heptathlon overnight with 3226 points. Mohmmaed Jasem Alqaree of Saudi Arabia is a close second with 3193.Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina was finally confirmed a the winner of Friday&rsquo;s women's pentathlon with 4224 points. Iran's Sepideh Hossein (3828) and Japan's Chie Kiriyama (3637) finished second and third respectively.A protest filed by Iran, against India's Swapna Barman for a lane infringement in the 800m, was upheld on Saturday after Barman had initially finished second behind Voronina.Bob Ramsak (organisers) for the IAAF

Another Asian indoor record and six competition records fell on the second day of the Asian Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, but it was local star Mohamed Al-Garni’s successful 1500m title defence that brought the crowd to their feet in the Aspire Dome on Saturday (20).

Al-Garni and Adekoya in the spotlight at the Asian Indoor Championships

Sprinters from Qatar produced the most eye-catching performances on the second day of the Asian Championships in Wuhan on Thursday (4) with 18-year-old Abdalelah Haroun claiming the 400m title and Femi Ogunode setting an Asian record in the men&rsquo;s 100m.Haroun, who earlier this year won the Arab title, equalled his PB of 44.68 as he stunned the defending champion and Asian record-holder Yousef Masrahi of Saudi Arabia to win the men&rsquo;s 400m title.Masrahi took an early lead but Haroun powered through the last curve and caught up with Masrahi before pulling away in the home straight. It was the third time this year that Haroun had clocked 44.68.&ldquo;This is good, still very close,&rdquo; said Haroun. &ldquo;This is my first time in China and I will be better.&rdquo;Masrahi finished second in 45.14 and Sato Kentaro of Japan finished a distant third in 46.09.&ldquo;44.68 is nothing for me actually. I will come back. I will break the Asian record again,&rdquo; said Masrahi who set the continental mark of 44.43 in Lausanne last July.After storming to a championship record of 9.97 in the semi-final, Ogunode delivered an early warning to break his own Asian 100m record on Wednesday. And today he made his words count.Assisted by a 1.8m/s tailwind, Ogunode built a comfortable midway lead and blazed through the finish line in 9.91, bettering his own Asian record of 9.93, set when winning the Asian Games title last year.&ldquo;I just want to thank everybody. I want to thank my team and my manager and everybody that supports me,&rdquo; said Ogunode. &ldquo;Today it is not a surprise for me because last year at the Asian Games I did not have a coach. I was training alone. Now I have a coach so this is not a surprise. Today's result is just like training. This is not my best.&rdquo;&ldquo;I am ready in any weather, any condition and anywhere,&rdquo; added the confident Qatari who set the mark in drizzling conditions.Talking about his expectation for the World Championships in Beijing in August, Ogunode said: &ldquo;I am going for the gold.&rdquo;China&rsquo;s Zhang Peimeng clocked 10.15 to finish second as he finally met the entry standard for the World Championships in his third outing of the season. Reza Ghasemi of Iran took the bronze in 10.19 while China&rsquo;s Xie Zhenye, the 200m gold medallist at the 2010 Youth Olympics, trimmed 0.06 from his personal best to finish fourth in 10.25.<h3>Al-Garni and Desalegn do the double</h3>After winning the 1500m on Wednesday, Qatar&rsquo;s double Asian Games champion Mohamad Al-Garni collected his second gold medal in Wuhan, improving the championship record to 13:34.47 en route to winning the men&rsquo;s 5000m title.In fact, the top four finishers all broke the championship record of 13:39.71 set four years ago by Bahrain&rsquo;s Dejene Regassa.Betlhem Desalegn of UAE also grabbed her second gold as she clocked 15:25.15 to win the women&rsquo;s 5000m, repeating the 1500m and 5000m double feat she achieved at the previous edition in Pune.The Chinese women&rsquo;s 4x100m relay team shrugged off a minor hiccup during the last changeover and claimed the title in 43.10 to beat the 14-year-old championship record of 43.41.&ldquo;It is a good race for us although our plan was to produce a sub-43 performance,&rdquo; said anchor leg runner Wei Yongli.Paced by Su Bingtian, who improved the Chinese 100m record to 9.99 at the recent IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene on Saturday, the hosts also won in the men&rsquo;s 4x100m in 39.04.Su Xinyue led a podium sweep for the hosts in women&rsquo;s discus with her sixth-round effort of 63.90m.Yang Huizhen clocked 52.37 to win the women&rsquo;s 400m while Zhang Wei levelled with his PB to win the men&rsquo;s pole vault at 5.60m.China&rsquo;s sixth gold came from long jumper Gao Xinglong as his first jump of 7.96m was good enough to secure the victory.Reigning champion Dilshod Nazarov of Tajikistan, the fifth-place finisher at the 2013 IAAF World Championships, hurled four throws beyond 77 metres to win the men&rsquo;s hammer title with 77.68m.Japan&rsquo;s Chisato Fukushima sprinted to a wind-assisted 11.23 to win the women&rsquo;s 100m while Ekaterina Voronina of Uzbekistan notch the heptathlon gold with 5689.Vincent Wu for the IAAF

Sprinters from Qatar produced the most eye-catching performances on the second day of the Asian Championships in Wuhan on Thursday (4) with 18-year-old Abdalelah Haroun claiming the 400m title and Femi Ogunode setting an Asian record in the men’s 100m.

Qatari sprinters dominate at Asian Championships

On a rain-soaked Sunday (7), Betlhem Desalegn of the UAE rewrote the championship record in the women’s 5000m en route to a golden double to highlight the final day of the 20th Asian Athletics Championships in Pune, India.The 21-year-old Desalegn, originally from Ethiopia, prevented a distance double for Bahrain’s 10,000m winner Shitaye Eshete. Desalgen, who has claimed the 1500m gold two days ago, won the 5000m in a championship record of 15:12.84.Tejitu Daba’s mark of 15:22.48, set in 2011, became history as Desalegn put in a strong show in an event not too familiar to her. Eshete, Daba and Desalegn played out a fascinating game, with the lead changing hands several times. It seemed the two Bahraini women would outwit Desalegn, but she proved too strong at the finish.Taking the lead with about 600m left, Desalegn cruised home, leaving Eshete (15:22.17) in silver position. In heavy conditions, Daba faded away to finish third in 15:38.63.“I am not used to running in rainy conditions,” said Desalgen. “It was very tough but I feel great as I have two gold medals now.”Saudi Arabia’s men’s 4x400m relay team set the other championship record of the day. Anchored by the 400m gold medallist Youssef Al-Masrahi, the Saudi team clocked 3:02.53 to erase the previous record of 3:02.61 set by Japan in 1998.On the final day, China won four more gold medals to take their final total to 16 gold, six silver and five bronze. Despite keeping many of their top performers at home, the Chinese team was a cut above the rest, with the second-placed Bahrain ending with a haul of 5-7-3.For the third straight time, Japan won both the 400m Hurdles events. Yasuhiro Fueki timed 49.86 to take the men’s gold from China’s Cheng Wen (50.07). India’s Satinder Singh warded off a late threat from Japan’s Yuta Imazeki to win the bronze in 50.35.Satomi Kubokura snatched the women’s title in 56.82 for her fourth straight gold medal in her sixth Asian Championships. The two successes gave respectability to Japan’s tally, as they ended third with four gold, six silver and ten bronze medals.The men’s High Jump turned out to be a prolonged affair with six men clearing 2.21m and none succeeding in going further in difficult conditions. China’s Bi Xioliang, Irain’s Keyvan Ghanbarzadeh and India’s Jithin Thomas were tied in first place with the same number of failures, forcing a jump-off.As the bar was brought lower, Xioliang cleared 2.18m for the gold while Ghanbarzadeh and Thomas both failed, leaving them sharing the silver medal. Qatar’s Asian record-holder Mutaz Essa Barshim skipped the event due to a back injury.Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla won Qatar’s only gold medal, leading from start to finish in the men’s 800m. It was a confident run by Balla, who powered through the two laps in 1:46.92. Saudi Arabia’s Abdulaziz Laden Mohammed tried to offer a challenge but could not match Balla’s pace and settled for the silver in 1:47.01. Bilal Mansour Ali took the bronze for Bahrain in 1:48.56.“I could have run faster but I was bit tired having run the heats and finals of the 400m,” said the 24-year-old Balla, who was fourth in the 400m. “I will focus on preparing for the World Championships now.”Yusuf Saad Kamel, Bahrain’s 2009 World 1500m champion, was sixth while Iran’s Asian Games champion Sajjad Moradi, hampered by a right hamstring strain, hobbled home eighth.China’s Wang Chunyu out-sprinted Bahrain’s Genzeb Shumi Regasa (2:04.16) and India’s Tintu Luka (2:04.48) for the women’s 800m gold. The 18-year-old Chunyu, who had run 2:02.81 at the Shanghai Diamond League, improved her season’s best to 2:02.47.Bahrain’s Dejene Regassa Mootuma retained his gold in the men’s 5000m. His compatriot Alemu Bekele, going for a double after his win in the 10,000m on the opening night, seemed the stronger of the two as they attempted to ward off the challenge from Saudi Arabia’s Imad Hamed Noor.Mootuma even dropped back to third and seemed to be fading away, but he found a second wind to catch up with the leaders. With a little over a lap left, he overtook Bekele before surging to the finish in 13:53.25, running zig-zag on the track and waving to the fans. Bekele’s silver came in 13:57.23 and Noor’s bronze in 14:05.88.Golden finishFor the home fans who thronged the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in large numbers, the best part of the programme came near the end. The Indian women’s 4x400m relay team, comprising Nirmala Sheoran, Luka, Anu Mariam Jose and Machettira Raju Poovamma, won the gold medal in 3:32.26, earning them a qualification spot for the World Championships. India had last won the event in 2007.Viktoriya Zyabkina won Kazakhstan’s first-ever gold in the women’s 200m in a race that saw the defending champion Chisato Fukushima of Japan slipping to fourth place. Zyabkina timed 23.62 to rebuff the challenge from India’s Asha Roy who claimed a surprise silver in 23.71. Dutee Chand, 17, sprang another surprise by emerging ahead of Fukushima by one-thousandth of a second. Both were credited with a time of 23.82.Xie Zhenye, another Chinese teenager, remained strong at the finish to seal the men’s 200m gold. The 19-year-old clocked 20.87 (+0.7) while Saudi Arabia’s Fahad Mohammed Al-Subaie (20.92) edged out Japan’s Kei Takase (20.92) for the silver, also by one-thousandth of a second.China’s Cao Shuo dashed Indian hopes in the men’s Triple Jump to win the gold by the narrowest of margins. Shuo, the 2010 Asian Junior Champion and the Asian Games bronze medallist, delivered his season’s best of 16.77m in the fourth round. Indian Renjith Maheswary, the 2007 champion, almost matched it with a 16.76m in the fifth round but couldn’t go any further. Arpinder Singh fetched another bronze for India with a 16.58m leap, relegating Kazakhstan’s 2009 champion Roman Valiyev (16.55m) to fourth. Valiyev had headed the Asian charts this season with a 17.10m effort.A correspondent for the IAAF

Desalegn lands distance double at Asian Championships

On a rain-soaked Sunday (7), Betlhem Desalegn of the UAE rewrote the championship record in the women’s 5000m en route to a golden double to highlight the final day of the 20th Asian Athletics Championships in Pune, India.