The 25th edition (official, actually 24th) Asian Athletics Championships continue to impress athletics fans with a diverse achievements. In the third evening of the event staged to 100 metres finals where Singapore and Japan takes the top honours.
Emerging as a regional star in South East Asia, Veronica Shanti Pereira of Singapore crushed the big nation’s hopes in 100 metres final to clocking superbly 11.20 NR as becoming first-ever 100m medallist from her country. Indeed, Singapore never won a gold medal in Asian Championships in 50 years as securing eight silver and five bronze, now, they’ve a sprinting queen ruled the whole continent.
CONTINUOUS RECORD-BREAKER
The 26-year-old from Singapore who already impressed athletics experts before arriving Asian Championships by breaking 100 metres national record six times in the span of three just months. She begun with the season in 11.48 and lowered the record in 11.26 in Rettingen, Germany. In the final, she wraps up the clock on 11.20 – another 0.06 cut from her previous record.
Even though she’s mostly skilled on curved sprint, she’s really have a chance to getting enormous sprint double at the Asians, just like she did in SEA Games this year in Phnom Penh.
YANAGITA WINS
Men’s sprint title goes to Japan after 19-year-old World U20 medallist Hiroki Yanagita as he clocked 10.02 personal best, shaving off 0.08 from previous one. Yanagita became just second Japanese 100 metres Asian Champion after Yoshihide Kiryu who claimed previous edition in Doha, goes well clear rest of the field. Muhammad Abkar of Saudi Arabia claimed silver in 10.19 while former Asian champion Hassan Taftian grabbed bronze within 0.02 margin over Asian record holder Femi Ogunode, a fourth-placer.
JAPAN RISE
Even Singapore’s Shanti Perreira made the headlines, the overall performance of Japanese team is deserve to praise. Addition of men’s 100 metres gold, they’ve clinched four more titles to reached 11 in total after day three.
Asian Indoor champion Sumire Hata has taken continental crown in outdoor as well in a spectacular last round jump of 6.97 metres – a championships and Japanese record. Just before World Champs in Budapest, she has climbed fourth in the world this year and third place in all-time Asian ranking, with only four centimetres shy of 30-year-old continental record.
