21st Asian Athletics Championships – Final day’s report – China finished on top while Barshim fell in downpour to third place

Wuhan, China – 7 June 2015:
Asian record-holder and World Leading athlete of the season, Mutaz Essa Barshim, finished a disappointing third place in high jump on the final evening of the Asian Athletics Championships here.
 
A heavy downpour washed away the high hopes of the Qatari high jumper as he failed in all his three attempts to clear 2.24m, a height normally considered as a child’s play for the continent’s best jumper ever who jumped 2.40m or more eight times in the last two years!
 
“The rain disturbed my concentration.  Moreover I could not warm-up properly due to rain” admitted Barshim after landing with bronze medal with his previous clearance at 2.20m.   He is holding the Asian Record at 2.43m and came to Wuhan with his World Leading 2.41m from Eugene Diamond League meet on May 30.
 
Japan’s Takashi Eto and Hsiang Chun-Hsieng of Chinese Taipei, with identical 2.24m clearances, received the gold and silver medals respectively.
 
Recovered quickly from the turn of events in the day, Barshim is now busy packing his things to catch his flight to Oslo (Norway) for Bislett Games, his next stop in IAAF Diamond League meet series to be held on June 11.
 
Ogunode made it treble with 200 and relay
Sprinter Femi Ogunode accomplished another win 200m (20.32 secs) and went on to anchor the Qatar’s 4x400m relay quartet to a national record 3:02.50.  The relay time was also a new Championship Record.
Saudi Arabia’s Al-Subaie (20.63) and Indian Dharambir (20.66 NR) were the other medalists in the longer sprint.
Kazakhstan sprinters were 1-2 in women’s race as Viktoriya Zyabkina (23.09) and Olga Safronova (23.46) triumphed in the first track final of the final day of competitions this afternoon wherein another Indian Srabani Nanda (23.54) took the bronze.
Another Qatari Musaab Bala successfully defends his title in 800m clocking 1:49.40 while Jinson Johnson of India in a close contest finished second in 1:49.69.
 
In fact Qatari athletes won gold medal in men’s track events right from 100m to 5000m.  Mohamed Al-Garni became only the second athlete ever to win a rare 1500-5000m double in the Asian championships history, first being another from his country in Mohamed Suleiman way back in 1991 at Kuala Lumpur.
 
Running with her trademark start to finish leading run Indian Tintu Luka pockets her first ever international gold medal in the women’s race in a time of 2:01.53, narrowly missing the Rio Olympics qualification. China's Zhao Jing (2:03.40) overwhelmed Sri Lankan Nimali Klarachchige (2:03.94) at the waning stages of the race for the silver.
 
Chinese field medal sweeps
Hosts China accounted for medal sweeps for women’s triple jump and shot put.  Triple jumper Wang Wupin (13.76m) and shot putter Guo Tianqian (18.59m) were on top in their respective events.  Besides them China were 1-2 in the javelin throw with Liu Shiying taking the gold in a new meet mark of 61.33m.
 
Incheon Asida winner Alia Mohamed Saeed (UAE) repeats her golden act in women’s 10,000m with another championship record in 31:52.29.  It was her second medal in this championship after a silver behind her teammate Betlhem Desalegn in 5000m.
 
Defending champion India went down to China in the women’s 4x400m relay as their anchor Poovamma had some troubling moment due to rain at the last stages of the race that the host team capitalise to their advantage to win in 3:33.44 against the Indians’ 3:33.81.
 
Japan’s Akihiko Nakamura, a bronze medalist in the Asian Games at Incheon and silver medalist in the last two editions of the Asian Championships, finally won the Gold in men’s decathlon garnering 7,773 points.
 
In yet another time China climbed to the top position in the medal tally with 15 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals followed by Qatar (7-2-1), India (4-5-4), Japan (4-3-11), Bahrain (3-3-2) and United Arab Emirates (3-1-0).
 
Ram. Murali Krishnan

Stats by Ken Nakamura: