Asian Amateur
Athletics Association drops “Amateur” from name, as competition gets underway in
Colombo
By an IAAF correspondent
9 August 2002 – Colombo, Sri Lanka - Chinese Gu Yuan hurled the hammer to a new
Asian record as the 14th Asian championships opened at the
Sugathadasa Stadium here today.
Gu Yuan produced a string of fine throws to tower over a field in which she had no challenge worth the name and sounded confident as she looked forward to the Asian Games coming up in Busan, Korea, in October.
Her 71.10 metre effort easily outstripped not only the rest of the six-woman field but also bettered her countrywoman Liu Yinghui’s continental mark of 68.06m set in Shanghai in May this year. The 20-year-old Chinese also had throws of 68.99 and 70.92 before she went beyond the 71-metre mark. Four years ago, at Fukuoka, she had won the Asian gold, but since then had taken turns back home with Li Yinghui and Zhao Wei in topping the Asian lists.
“I was confident of winning,’’ said Gu Yuan. “If I missed the gold here, then I would have gone for it in the Asian Games,’’ said the young thrower who was only fifth in the continental rankings for the season till this day. Liu Yinghui and Masumi Aya of Japan were the top two with two other Chinese, Zhang Wenxiu and Wang Xiaoyu, filling in the next two slots in the ranking before the competition began.
Wang Xiaoyu was there in today’s competition but she fared poorly, just reaching 57.00 on her second attempt and eventually finishing fourth behind India’s Hardeep Kaur. The Chinese, who was second in the National championships at Benxi, with 62.83, fouled her fourth and fifth attempts.
Gu Yuan had by then ensured the gold while Hardeep Kaur was edged for the silver by Chinese Taipei’s Huang Chih-Feng who went up to 58.19 in the fifth round. Hardeep’s with her third round best of 57.82 had firmly established herself in the second spot till then. Obviously she was disappointed that a bronze was all that she could get, though this happened to be India’s first medal in hammer throw which made its Asian championship entry only in 1998.
The Chinese, underlining their superiority in the women’s events, even while fielding a second-tier team, won the women’s discus gold as well, through Li Yanfeng. India filled up the next two slots in the medals race with Harwant Kaur taking the silver and Swaranjit Kaur the bronze.
With the top two, Neelam Jaswant Singh of India and Ma Shuli of China missing from the field, the women’s discus competition lacked the class that could have been expected at this level. The No. 3 in the year’s lists, Harwant Kaur of India could not touch her best and at 60.06 the gold was Li Yanfeng’s.
The 23-year-old Chinese, who has a PB of 63.67, achieved in 1999, was only seventh in the ranking lists, with her 58.29 in one of the Grand Prix meets back home. There was no second Chinese entry in this event, with both Ma Shuli and Song Aimin, who dominated the Asian Grand Prix meets earlier this season, apparently being prepared for the Asian Games in Busan.
The third gold of the day was claimed by the experienced Qatari, Ahmed Ibrahim Warsama, in the men’s 10,000 metres. The 30:31.5 returned by the Qatari veteran was by far the poorest in Asian championship history, but the Qataris couldn’t have complained about the timings as they made it a one-two. The silver was taken by Awad Aman Majid. India’s little-known Jagannath Lakade won the bronze, his first international medal.
Even with a 5.40pm start, with a mild breeze making life easier for the runners on an overcast day, the 10,000 metres contestants found the going tough right from the start. The Qataris knew their strength and kept themselves in check till the half-way stage. The others kept quickening the tempo now and then only to fall back and allow the Qataris to dominate. In between, Bahrain’s Abdullah Zakaria tried a few tricks and so did the Indians, led by Gojen Singh who was to give up altogether with about four and a half laps to go.
Ibrahim and Majid kept themselves close to the leading bunch much of the time and once they shook the rest off decisively with about five laps left, there was no looking back. The only question that remained was who would take the gold. Ibrahim’s better finish obviously made him the favourite and that is the way it turned out with the 36-year-old retaining the gold he had won at Jakarta two years ago. For 20-year-old Majid this was the first senior Asian medal.
In the women's high jump final, Kazanina Svetlana of Kazakhstan won the gold with a distance of 1.77m, while fellow Kazakh Naumenko Inna took silver also with 1.77. Biswa Soma of India was third with a height of 1.65 metres.
Off the track, the Asian Amateur Athletics Association today announced that it had changed its name to Asian Athletics Association (AAA) to fall in line with the international federation in removing the word ‘amateur’. It was also announced that the next championships would be held next year in Manila to begin a new cycle in which the championships would come in between the Olympics and the Asian Games. The AAA also decided to add one more leg to the Asian Grand Prix circuit next year, either to be held in Colombo or Kuala Lumpur. The venues which held the circuit this year, Hyderabad, Bangkok and Manila were retained.
Leading results:
Men: 10,000m: Ahmed Ibrahim Warsama (QAT) 30:31.5, 2. Awad Aman Majid (QAT) 30:33.5, 3. Jagannath Lakade (IND) 30:51.2.
Women: Discus: 1. Li Yanfeng (CHN) 60.06, 2. Harwant Kaur (IND) 57.60, 3. Swaranjit Kaur (IND) 55.05.
Hammer: 1. Gu Yuan (CHN) 71.10 (Asian record), 2. Huang Chih-Feng (TPE) 58.19, 3. Hardeep Kaur (IND) 57.82.
