Arshad Nadeem at the Asian Championships (© Edwin Koo / Asian Athletics)
Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem confirmed his supremacy in the javelin at the Asian Championships in Gumi, Korea, which concluded on Saturday (31), while distance runners Noah Jeruto of Kazakhstan and Gulveer Singh of India secured double gold.
Last year, Nadeem won Pakistan’s first ever Olympic medal in athletics, taking javelin gold in Paris with 92.97m, breaking both the Asian record and the Olympic record. The Asian Championships marked his first competition since then, and he led the qualifying round with 86.34m.
In the final, however, his first two throws landed at 75.64 and 76.80m, while Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage established an early lead with 82.28m. Nadeem then unleashed his spear out to 85.57m on his third try to take the lead. India’s Sachin Yadav (85.16m) and Japan’s Yuta Sakiyama (83.75m) logged PBs in the sixth round to secure silver and bronze. Nadeem, meanwhile, improved to 86.40m in that round to clinch the title.
Jeruto, the 2022 world steeplechase champion, returned to winning ways by clinching titles in the 5000m and steeplechase on the last two days of the competition, setting championship records of 14:58.71 and 9:10.46. India’s Parul Chaudhary took silver in both of the events, clocking 15:15.33 and 9:12.46.
Singh, who had won the 10,000m earlier in the week, added the 5000m gold on the penultimate day (30) with a championship record of 13:24.77. It was a hard-fought victory as Thailand’s Kieran Tuntivate and Japan’s Nagiya Mori pushed him hard after Bahrain’s former Asian Games silver medalist Albert Rop struggled to keep the pace with the trio. At the end, Tuntivate finished 0.20 behind Singh for the silver.
The last two days of the championships saw three winners from the 2023 edition make it on to the podium again. China’s Abuduaini Tuergong took the men’s discus with a 63.47m throw, while Japan’s Towa Uzawa set a championship record of 20.12 to win the 200m.
Asian record-holder and world silver medallist Ernest John Obiena completed a hat-trick of Asian pole vault titles, though it didn’t come easy. The vaulter from the Philippines eventually won in a jump-off at 5.77m, just ahead of China’s world and Olympic finalist Bokai Huang.
Double Asian Games champion Kemi Adekoya was beaten in a close finish in the women’s 400m hurdles by China’s Mo Jiadie. The Asian Games silver medallist made a strong move on the home straight and finished three-thousandths of a second ahead of Adekoya to take gold (55.309 to 55.312).
The margin of victory was also close in the men’s long jump as China’s Shu Heng beat defending champion Lin Yu Tang of Chinese Taipei, 8.22m to 8.20m.
Another defending champion was beaten into second place, this time in the women’s 200m, as China’s Chen Yujie took the title ahead of Shanti Veronica Pereira, 22.97 to 22.98.
Elsewhere on the track, Abderrahman Al-Saleck Samba won the men’s 400m hurdles in 48.00 while Kuwait’s Ebrahim Al-Safari took the men’s 800m in 1:44.59 ahead of Iran’s Ali Amirian (1:44.97).
The five-day championships came to a memorable end as Korea’s Seo Minjun, Nwamadi Joeljin, Lee Jaeseong, and Lee Junhyuk teamed up to win the men’s 4x100m in a championship record of 38.49 ahead of Thailand (38.78).
China once again led the medal tally with 19 gold, nine silver and four bronze medals. India (8-10-6) and Japan (5-11-12) finished behind them on the medals table.
The next edition of the championships will be held in Xiamen, China, in 2027.
Ram Murali Krishnan for World Athletics