(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Yu Sen Shen of Chinese Taipei yesterday gave credence to his title of 'Asia's fastest boy' by winning the 200m finals on the fourth and last day of the First Asian Youth Athletics Championships where China topped the medals tally with ease.
The 16-year-old, who won the 100m final on day one, yesterday clinched the issue in the 200m final with a time of 21.69 seconds, finishing ahead of China's Wu Zhittao (22.01s) and Indonesia's Ogsa Agfreansa (22.16s).
The slender sprinter from Chinese Taipei kept among the leaders over the bend and powered past everyone on the home straight to finish first.
In the girls 200m, China's Huang Jiaxin topped the final with a time of 24.67 seconds. Japan's Sayaka Morita (25.16s) clinched the silver medal while Singapore's Kugapriya Chandran (25.35s) grabbed the bronze.
Overall, a total of 16 countries won a gold medal in the competition, while 27 saw at least one of their athletes step onto the podium.
Athletics powerhouse China topped the rankings snatching 15 gold, 11 silver and 5 bronze medals.
Second-placed Chinese Taipei picked up four gold medals and 1 bronze.
Bahraini athletes surprised fans with good performances, finishing third on the medals table with three gold medals and one bronze. India - with two gold, six silver and five bronze medals - were fourth.
Korea with two gold, three silver and three bronze medals completed the top five nations in the event.
Qatar's Fatima Othman Al Absi (2m) finished with a bronze medal in the pole vault competition, which was won by Kazakhstan's Anna Danilovskaya (3.70m). Indonesia's Devi Ayufebriana (3.40m) clinched the silver.
Qatar finished the competition with one gold and one bronze medal.
Yesterday, the high jump final was nothing short of epic.
Four athletes, Ding Shuo (China), Roshan Dammika Ranatunga (Sri Lanka), Hussein Falah Hasan Al Ibraheemi (Iraq) and Tejaswin Shanker (India), all cleared 2.12m, a world-class mark and a measure that would have qualified for the World Youth Championships final two years ago in Donetsk.
When the bar was raised to the 2.15m mark though, all but Shuo failed, with Ranatunga coming closest to clearing with some very close jumps.
In the discus throw, Iran's Sajjad Hassan Zare fell far from his true potential, but his effort was adequate enough to award him gold.
The 17-year-old from the city of Masha came up with a 53.06m throw, well behind his 57.86m personal best, but he was still in a class of his own.
Zare regards Ehsan Haddadi, the 2012 Olympic Games silver medallist and 2011 World Championships bronze medallist, as his role model.
"It's been only three years since I started training. I have met Haddadi once. He came to see me training and advised me to improve my technique and work on my speed, to become a champion like him," said Zare, who had never competed outside Iran before.
"I have already qualified for the World Youth Championships in Cali. I know I can better my record and fight for gold in Colombia. I dream of seeing myself winning the Olympic gold medal one day," he added.
China's Zhang Jun captured the final day's first medal in the morning session with a clear victory in the 10K walk with a time of 44:00.87.
Sri Lanka's Yamani Dulanjalee Mudiyanselage and Kazakhstan's Mariya Ovchinikova saved the best for last, offering their respective countries their first gold medals at the championships. The former won in the 400m hurdles (1:01.27) and the latter leaped 12.81m in the triple jump, the sixth best performance in the world this year.
Just a few moments later Kazakhstan prevailed in another discipline, the girls pole vault with Anna Danilovskaya sailing over 3.70m.
The national anthem of Thailand was also played for the first time yesterday, following Witthawat Thumcha's hard-fought 400m hurdles victory.
Sri Lanka nearly doubled their gold medals in the hurdles but Darshana M S U Kuamrabatagallalage had to settle with a close second place.
Also yesterday, China's Zhou Jungjing scored 5000 points in the heptathlon to claim gold and Bahrain's Dalila Abdulkadir Gosa made it look easy as he ran to a 1500m victory finishing in 4:19.95, the fifth best time in the world for 2015.
China won both medley relays, the boys finishing in 1:53.34 and the girls in 2:13.32.
Asian Athletics Association (AAA) President Dahlan Al Hamad told athletes competing in Doha: "Some of you have done really well here. Some of you will go and compete at the World Youth Athletics Championships."
He added: "It is not going to be easy if you don't fight. There are more competitions and we are confident that our athletes from Asia will continue to fight and improve."
"During these four days we have seen heroes of the future. We have seen magnificent competitions. It is difficult to keep that level so you have to work hard." Al Hamad, who is also the President of the Qatar Athletics Federation (QAF), said.
"Athletes from 41 countries featured at our event. I want to thank you all."
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