(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Three newly-crowned Asian youth champions impressed on day three of the first Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Doha - setting world-leading performances and sending a strong signal to their rivals just two months before the ninth IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia.
Also yesterday, four more nations - Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Japan - joined the list of countries with at least one gold medal to their name. Now, altogether 12 nations have gold medals in their kitty.
The star of the day was China's hammer thrower Xu Wenjie. The young athlete followed the footsteps of many great Chinese hammer throwers of the past to win the event with a massive 75.15m throw - a national youth record and second only to the world youth record throw of Hungary's Reka Gyuratz (76.04m). India's Ashish Jakhar, who came second, also impressed with a 71.79m throw - the fifth best throw ever in the youth category.
Uzbekistan's Vladislav Palyunin also impressed. The 17-year-old, who lives, trains and studies in Dubai, bettered his personal best by 18m to claim gold in the javelin throw with 79.11m - the best performance in the world for 2015.
"I didn't train much the last couple of years due to hepatitis. That explains the huge improvement, but I knew I was capable of throwing that far. I can even exceed the 80m mark but I guess even 79m would be enough to win gold in Cali," said the overwhelmed Palyunin.
Palyunin's said he idolizes his father, Dmitry, who represented the Soviet Union at the 1992 Olympics.
"My father introduced me to athletics, along with my uncle who was also a javelin thrower. I love athletics and I dream of becoming an Olympic champion one day."
Safina Sadullaeva won the high jump to give Uzbekistan its second gold of the day. She beat Hong Kong's Wong Yuen Nam on countback. Both athletes cleared 1.71m and a jump-off was needed to decide the winner. After both failed at 1.69m, Safina cleared 1.67m while Wong failed.
Another standout performer was Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser Naser in the 400m. The young Bahraini was simply irresistible with her perfect style and pace, finishing first with a time of 53.02s. India's Mathew Jisna trailed her with 53.84s, the sixth fastest time in the world this year.
Jisna, the prodigy of Indian track and field legend P.T. Usha, said: "I am very happy with my performance. I think it's my best."
"This was my first big event and I am delighted that I lived up to the expectations of my coach and won it in front of her," the 16-year-old from Kannur district of Kerala said.
Jisna was first picked from a selection trial conducted by the Usha School of Athletics in 2011 and is one of the athletes the coach believes has huge potential.
Her mentor was proud.
"To clock such timings at such a young age is noteworthy," Usha said about the girl who is part of the Indian team for the World Youth Championships to be held in Columbia next month.
Usha also thinks that day is not far away when Jisna will improve her best. "Jisna has made steady progress at the school nationals and at the youth level. She has been running the 100m and the 200m and it is only recently that she has moved to the 400m. In order to gain experience I made her run the 400m in the recently held Federation Cup. I am happy with her progress," Usha said.
"At this stage I would say Jisna is better than what I was," Usha, one of Asia's greatest track and field athletes, said.
Kyrgyzstan's Arina Kleshchukov set the pace in the 800m after the bell rang for the final round and survived a late surge by Japan's Misato Kaneko, who pushed her hard in the final meters. Kleshchukov crossed the line in 2:14.73, with Kaneko following in 2:15.04. The real drama, however, unfolded in the battle for the bronze medal, when Kazakhstan's Anastassiya Chshadylo tripped and fell while trying to reach the leaders. Lebanon's Sara Joe Rafik Kortbawi took advantage of the Kazakh's misfortune to pass her and claim the final spot on the podium.
Pakistan's Muhammad Afzal needed only one valid distance to win the triple jump with a distance of 15.44m, ahead of Sri Lanka's Chamal Kumarasiri Liyana Waduge, who had a large group of supporters to back him. This was the first medal for Sri Lanka at the Asian Youth Championships and a personal best for the young Sri Lankan, whose previous record was 15.18m. The pre-event favourite, India's Sonu Kumar, leaped 15.08m, some 42cm behind his personal best to win bronze.
Afzal said he was pleasantly surprised with the results.
"Yes, this is a surprise. I didn't expect to win the gold but I knew I would fight hard," Afzal said. "I have been training well. I thank my coaches back home for their valuable inputs," the 17-year-old added.
"I have been to the SAF Games in India where I finished in fourth place. So yes, this is my best ever performance. I hope I can do better than this." Afzal said.
"I know the boys I was competing against were good. So I stayed focused and decided to give my best," he added.
Japan's long-awaited maiden gold medal finally came today, courtesy of Kanae Sugimura's victory in the long jump. The Japanese leaped 5.90m in her fourth attempt to surpass Korea's Huijin Lee's early lead of 5.82m.
The formidable Chinese team excelled in running events, adding three more golds to their tally. Hunag Peng prevailed in the 1500m with a time of 4 minutes, 5.85 seconds, Tian Wanhua dominated the 2000m steeplechase with ease, clocking 7:01.06, and Wu Yu Ang ran close to his personal best (47.33s) to win the 400m in style with a time of 47.55s.
Khaled Alsaid Fares from Kuwait won the 110m hurdles, clocking 13.92s. China's Bo Xiaoshuai, who had beaten him in qualifying with a much better time of 13.75s lead throughout the race but hit the last hurdle and lost his pace, eventually finishing second with 13.92s.
The pole vault title went to Taipei's Yao Wen Yeh.
Today is the final day of competition.
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