The third night session of the Asian Athletics Championships was delayed one and a half hours due to heavy rain as the programme concluded with the host nation's victory, which came from World-medallist high jumper Sang-hyeok Woo. Woo emulated fellow Korean Jin-Taek Lee's triple crown at the event, which was the only one until tonight.
Woo's 2.29 jump was enough to secure his third Asian victory, following in 2017 and 2023, and he failed in 2.33 on three occasions. The Korean star has been hoping to compete against legendary Mutaz Essa Barshim, who withdrew from the event at the last minute. Thanks to 29-year-old from Daejeon, the Republic of Korea joined the gold-winning nations in the medal standings.
IRANIAN JOY
On the far opposite side of the stadium, Iranian Reyhaneh Mobini Arani claimed a historical championship for her nation. Just several days after Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival, she has achieved an inspirational one, too. Arani, who broke her own national record of 6.53m this year, started the final with 6.36 metres effort. In the next rotation, the 24-year-old Iranian jumped 6.40 metres to extend her lead and remained at the top until the end. Indian duo Ancy Edapilly and Shaili Singh recorded 11 out of 12 valid jumps during the contest but were unable to emulate the measurement of the Iranian. Meanwhile, 2023 Asian champion Sumire Hata failed to go beyond 6.20 and finished the final out of the podium. After the conclusion of the jumps, Arani became the Asian champion by six centimetres and made history for Iran. Previously, Iranian female athletes have won two silver and four bronze medals at the Asian Championships.
China's world-class throwing star Feng Bin clinched her third discus title as Mohamed Reza Tayebi added another layer to the Iranian celebration with his shot put victory. In the sprint hurdles, Japan's co-record holder Rachid Muratake clocked 13.22 to take men's title while Jyothi Yarraji from India broke the championship record in 12.96 by claiming gold in the women's race.
Earlier of the day, Kenyan-born Daisy Jepkemei broke championship record in 30:48.44 and brought a victory for Kazakhstan as two other athletes also ran under the previous best mark in the event. Indian Avinash Sable was victorious in the steeplechase as he favourite to win, and he clocked 8:20.92 - the second-best time at the Asian Championships.
