Asian championships closes with Doubles for Jayasinghe, Sief Abdullah and Pong Sil
IAAF Correspondent
12 August 2002 – Colombo, Sri Lanka - Susanthika Jayasinghe completed the sprint double. It couldn’t have ended on a better note for the host’s most celebrated athlete and the country as a whole as the curtain came down on the 14th Asian athletic championships on Monday.
Despite fielding one of their weakest teams ever, the Chinese managed to retain their position at the top of the medals table, with 10 gold medals in a 20-medal haul. Qatar, having made a few notable achievements outside track, had eight gold medals among a total of 16 to take the second position. With their women’s team, it was India who slipped from their second rank last time at Jakarta to the 10th slot this time, with just one gold coming on the last day through the women’s 4x400 metres relay team. India did not enter their best athletes this time, preferring to send a batch each to Ukraine and Belarus in preparation for the Asian Games in Busan, Korea in October.
China also did not send many of their top-rung athletes. Yet, if they managed to top the standings, it showed their enviable depth plus the disparity in standards especially in the women’s field events. On the final day, however, the lone Chinese gold came from the men’s high jump, Kui Cai winning at 2.19.
Susanthika won the 200 metres by a six-metre margin over Uzbekistan’s Lyubov Perepelova. She had predicted the double, but at the end of it all she felt that Damayanthi Darsha should also have been there. The whole controversy surrounding the relay team selection and the subsequent dropping of Darsha and high hurdler Sriyani Kulawansa from the sprint relay team, seemed to have upset Jayasinghe. Darsha had dropped out of the individual events due to a hamstring injury. Today she anchored the 4x400 relay team, but she alone could not do much to avoid the bronze in a three-team field, India and Japan taking the top two positions.
The way Jayasinghe ran the 200 metres there was no trace of any lack of preparation due to the disturbing circumstances. Or maybe she is such a vastly experienced and confident runner in her post-Sydney Olympics phase that she makes it look all too simple. By the time the runners came through the curve it was clear that Susanthika was going to win easily. She put daylight between her and the rest past the 80 metre mark and looked relaxed as she crossed the line in a championship record-equalling 22.84, easily the best time in the continent this season. Perepelova’s silver came in 23.76 while Chinese Yan Jiankui took the bronze in 23.85 seconds.
Susanthika’s second gold plus the one gathered by the men’s 1600m relay team later in the evening brought Sri Lanka’s collection to three. Though competing at home, it was still one short of their tally at Jakarta two years ago. Had Darsha been there, it could have been one more at least.
There were two other athletes, apart from Jayasinghe who completed the golden double, Qatar’s steeplechaser Khamis Sief Abdullah, who won the 5000 metres and North Korean Ham Pong Sil, who by completing the distance double in the women’s section has given everyone some food for thought as they get busy towards the final build-up for the Asian Games in Korea.
North Korea did not have a gold or silver last time. This time also that country would not have been expected to win a gold. Ham Pong Sil, coming out of nowhere, timed her kick to perfection to beat Japanese Akiko Kawashima over the final straight in the 5000 metres . The Japanese was in front with about 80 metres left when Ham Pong Sil sneaked up on her from behind and then held herself together till the finish. The conditions were not ideal for distance running and Ham Pong Sil’s time of 15:42.88 or for that matter those returned by the male 5000m runners later were nothing much to talk about.
Khamis Sief Abdullah led a pack of four athletes away from the front-running Indian, Gojen Singh, with about two and a half laps to go in the men’s 5000 metres. Abdullah had a big `kick’ ready, 250 metres away from the finish and then went into overdrive on the home straight to ward off any possible challenge.
The fight was always going to be for the silver and here a little nudge from the inside by Bahrain’s Zakaria Abdullah did Saudi Moukhled Al-Otaibi in, giving the chance to Nasser Ahmed Suleiman to come back and grab a bronze. He had made a gallant dash down the straight and seemed to have almost given up hope when Moukhled lost his balance just for a fraction. That was enough for Nasser to make up lost ground.
China’s decathlete prodigy, Qi Haifeng, leading by 224 points after nine events, gave up the 1500 metres due to an injury and left Qatari Ahmad Hassan Musa as the winner. The Chinese, just turned 20, had compiled an 8030 tally in the National championships at Benxi in June and was the overwhelming favourite to win here.
Sultan Faraj Mubarak Al-Nubi, two-time winner of the 400-metre hurdles event, in 1995 and 1998, was at the centre of the podium again, winning from a tough field which included Japanese Hideaki Kawamura as well as the in-from Kazak, Yevgeniy Meleshenko.
Saudi Hussain Taheer Al-Sabee retained his long jump gold, with an 8.09 jump that happened to be the only eight-metre-plus jump of the evening. Chinese Cai Xiobao and Huang Le took the next two medals. World Junior champion Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Waleed finished sixth with 7.79. He had jumped a personal best 7.99 to claim the gold at Kingston.
The results:
Men:
200m: 1. Gennadiy Chernovol (KAZ) 20.73, 2. Fawzi Al-Shammari (KUW) 20.92, 3. Sittichai Suwornprateep (THA) 21.04.
800m: 1.Mikhail Kolaganov (KAZ) 1:48.91, 2. Salem Amer Al-Badri (QAT) 1:48.95, 3. Abu Adam Ali Adam (QAT) 1:49.25.
5000m: 1. Khamis Siefeidin Abdullah (QAT) 14:16.81, 2. Abdullahak Zakaria (BRN) 14:19.92, 3. Nasser Ahmed Suleiman (QAT) 14:19.97.
400m hurdles: 1. Sultan Mubarak Al-Nubi (QAT) 48.67s, 2. Hideaki Kawamura (JPN) 48.85, 3. Yevgeniy Meleshenko (KAZ) 49.56.
High jump: 1. Kui Cai (CHN) 2.19m, 2. Salem Nasser Bakheet (BRN) 2.15, 3. Loo Kum Zee (MAS) 2.15.
Long jump: 1. Hussain Taheer Al-Sabee (KSA) 8.09m, 2. Cai Xiaobao (CHN) 7.95, 3. Huang Le (CHN) 7.91.
Discus: Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari (QAT) 64.43m (CR), 2. Abbas Samimi (IRI) 60.49, 3. Nuermaimaiti Tulake (CHN) 60.39.
Decathlon: 1. Ahmad Hassan Musa (QAT) 7670, 2. Pavel Andreyev (UZB) 7428, 3. Takuro Hirata (JPN) 7344.
4x400m: 1. Sri Lanka 3:03.35, 2. India 3:06.76, 3. Japan 3:07.09.
Women: 200m: 1. Susanthika Jayasinghe (SRI) 22.84s (eq CR), 2. Lyubov Perepelova (UZB) 23.76, 3. Yan Jiankui (CHN) 23.85
800m: 1. Miho Sugimori (JPN) 2:03.59, 2. Tatyana Borisova (KGZ) 2:03.67, 3. Zanura Amireva (UZB) 2:04.48.
5000m: 1. Ham Pong Sil (PRK) 15:42.88, 2. Akiko Kawashima (JPN) 15:44.08, 3. Mizuho Nasukawa (JPN) 16:24.63.
400m hurdles: 1. Natalya Torshina (KAZ) 55.81s, 2. Song Yinglan (CHN) 56.49, 3. Yokiko Mashida (JPN) 57.04.
Shot put: 1. Juthaporn Krasaeyan (THA) 18.05m, 2. Cheng Xiaoyan (CHN) 17.39, 3. Sumi Ichioka (JPN) 16.12.
4x400m: 1. India 3:37.48, 2. Japan 3:38.29, 3. Sri Lanka ?
3:42.71.
