On the opening day of the 26th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships, the race-walking events were dominated by Chinese walkers as they put a championship record on the result sheet. Asian Games silver medallist Wang Zhaozhao clocked 1:20:37 and broke the 22-year-old championship record from 2003. Wang is a brilliant form this season by lowering his PB to 1:17:30 in Taicang and securing his first continental title in Gumi. With his gruelling win at 30 degrees Celsius, he can surely focus on World Championships success next September. Japanese Kento Yoshikawa has just nine seconds off his pace while he also went under the previous best mark at the event and claimed silver ahead of India's Servin Sebasthian.
The walking powerhouse China maintained its superiority in the women's contest by taking the top two spots. Former World 50K medallist Yin Hang recorded 1:30:44 for 20K walk in Gumi and secured an easy victory over younger compatriot Ma Li. She has trailed 32 seconds behind the championship record, but her mark mistakenly indicated "CR" in the official results.
2017 Asian U18 hammer throw champion Li Ji of China upgraded her crown to senior level in eight years. Among the twelve competitors, she was the only athlete to get over 70 metres barrier and achieved 72.98m in her fifth attempt, which means China got a gold medal in the women's hammer for the fourteenth time in the past fifteen editions, including eight 1-2 double. The fresh national record holder from Chinese Taipei, Chien-Yu Ya grabbed the bronze medal, the first throwing Asian medal for the nation since 2013.
Yet another age group champion who upgraded to senior crown was Su Lingdan. Lingdan, who won the Asian U20 javelin title in 2016, threw his javelin to 63.29 metres and improved her personal best by 63 centimetres. The 29-year-old Chinese claimed the gold medal almost four meters clear of Japan's Momone Ueda, who progressed to silver from fourth place in the very last attempt.
2024 World U20 silver medallist Yi Li became the Asian champion in triple jump by 13.80 metres. The Uzbek hopeful Sharifa Davronova managed 13.72 for the silver medal as defending champion Mariko Morimoto of Japan got a third place by a single centimetre from her compatriot Maoko Takashima.
The final medal event of the day was held in 10,000 metres, with 19 athletes representing 14 nations. Indian record holder Gulver Singh, who ran a massive 27:00.22 this year, cracked the race in the final lap. He hides in the front group and kicks in 300 metres to go while dropping Albert Rop of Bahrain out of the game. He built a five-second gap between Japanese Mebuki Suzuki as Rop, only able to manage third.
