Khairul Hafiz Jantan in the 100m at the Asian Junior Championships (© Organisers)
Victories in the 100m by Khairul Hafiz Jantan of Malaysia and Liu Qun of China were among the chief highlights of the first two days (3-4) of the four-day Asian Junior Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
After clocking a PB of 10.30 in the earlier rounds, 17-year-old Jantan won the final in 10.36 to upset Japan's Ippei Takeda and Abdullah Abkar Mohammed of Saudi Arabia, who clocked 10.41 and 10.45 respectively. Mohammed arrived in Vietnam as the year's quickest U20 sprinter in the world, having clocked 10.04.
In a close women's race, Liu edged Hong Kong's Chan Pui Kei by a scant 0.01 in 11.84. Chattha on-Uma of Thailand grabbed the bronze medal in 11.88.
China’s Zhong Peifeng showed his class in the long jump, taking the title with a 7.84m effort on Saturday.
The 19-year-old jumped 8.01m indoors earlier this year to put himself in medal contention for this summer’s IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016. Tomoya Nomura edged his Japanese teammate Kazuma Adachi by just two centimetres to take silver with 7.75m.
The women’s competition on Friday witnessed host Vietnam’s first victory courtesy of Nguyen Thi Truc Mai. The 19-year-old improved her personal best to 6.34m to move to sixth on the season’s U20 list. Thailand's Parinya Chuaimaroeng leapt 6.28m for second.
Meanwhile, in the women's javelin, Su Lingdan of China solidified her number four position on the yearly U20 list with her dominant 57.32m winning effort, more than four metres better than Chang Chu of Chinese Taipei, who finished second with 53.14m.
There were several national sweeps over the longer distances.
India took both titles in the 1500m, Lili Das the women’s in 4:29.50 and Ajay Kumar Saroj, running in stiff rains, the men’s gold medal in 3:57.55.
Hana Omori and Takato Suzuki led 1-2 finishes for Japan in both the 5000m races.
Omori won Saturday’s women’s contest in 16:57.39 while Suzuki dominated Friday's men's race in 14:16.42, winning by nearly 16 seconds.
Similarly, China took both titles in the 10,000m race walk, with Zhang Yao edging Morita Yasushi of Japan in Saturday’s men’s race 44:33.00 to 44:33.79, and Wang Wenjing capturing the women’s on Friday clocking 50:23.89, nearly 14 seconds clear of teammate Cun Hailu.
Japan leads the medal tally after two days with 13 in total: five gold, six silver and two bronze. China is next with six gold, three silver and two bronze.
The championships conclude on Monday (6).
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
