 |
|
|
|
 |
Seven athletes sweep titles in AGP-2011
Wujiang, China – 29 May
2011:Seven athletes (three men and four women)
showed they are unbeaten in their favourite events
as curtain rung down in the Asian Grand Prix series
here with the final leg concluded on Sunday evening.
However hosts China had a shot in the arm with the
ousting of their sprinter Chen Qiang in 100m. It
could have been eight had Qiang maintained his
winning-streak.
Guzel Khubbieva, the
continental sprint queen from Uzbekistan, put her
nearest rivals ten metre behind as her torso entered
the finish-line in a fantastic 11.48 secs. Wei
Yongli of China was second at 11.62s while guest
runner Toea Wisil from Papua New Guinea finished
third clocking 11.67 secs. Khubbieva’s teammate
Svetlana Radzivil was triumphant in high jump with
another treble.
Kazakh runner Margarita
Matsko, the Asian champion in 800m, was another
athlete who made the sweep. With Indian Tintu Luka
opted to skip the series, it was an easy outing for
Matsko. Uzbek half-miler Anna Sidorova provided some
competition but it could not halt Matsko’s golden
run.
Another Indian, discus
thrower Seema Antil, fails to regain her form and
thus allowed Chinese duo of Yang Fei and Lin
Xiaojing to take the top places. Yang Fei got her
third grand title with a throw of 59.16m while
Xiaojing once again gave a silver-lining in her
56.16m. Seema, the Indian record holder with 64.64m,
claimed her third bronze medal here in 51.45m.
The Indian camp was delighted at last with Mayookha
Johny’s big leap in triple jump. Having briefly held
the national mark with a 13.68m jump in last August,
Mayookha lost the record to her teammate Prajusha
who achieved 13.72m at the Commonwealth Games in
Delhi. Two identical 13.71m jumps put Mayookha in
fourth and fifth places respectively in the first
two legs of the Asian Grand Prix series this year.
However this evening she made it with a grand
opening 13.97m in her first try and went on to
improve it with her sixth and last jump with an
incredible 14.02m that fetch the bronze medal. Xie
Limei improved her season’s best with a 14.16m
golden leap. Her colleague Li Yanmei, who posted a
continental leading 14.35m when taking the silver in
Diamond League meet at Shanghai hardly two weeks
ago, finished second by just 3 cm ahead of the
Indian.
Iranian runner Sajad Moradi
once again pips Ghamanda Ram of India in men’s 800m.
In yet another close race Moradi clocked 1:49.27 for
the third successive gold. Ram with 1:49.45
collected his third silver medal of the series while
teammate Sajeesh Joseph was one place lower in
1:49.74 for the bronze.
Hurdler Fan Jiang brought
his third gold to the hosts in 110m hurdles, while
country-mate Zhang Guowei did so in the high jump.
Mahmoud Samimi of Iran regained the top spot in
men’s discus throw. Ram. Murali Krishnan for AAA. |
|
|
 Margarita
set new record in the second leg of Asian Grand Prix
Kunshan, China – 26 May
2011: Defending Asian Champion Margarita Matsko of
Kazakhstan not only improved on her season leading
time but also set new record of Asian GP in women
800m with a fantastic solo run 2:00.89sec. Anna
Sidorova of Uzabekstan finished on the second place
with 2:02.98s while Li Yong of China was way behind
with 2:12.3sec.
Former Asian champion as
well as World and Olympic finalist Xie Limei of
China delivered a fine performance in women’s triple
jump. Her 14.06m jump fetches the gold medal.
However her teammate Li Yanmei (13.85m) missed the
podium as two excellent Uzbek athletes Aleksandra
Kotlyarova (14.00m) and Anastasiya Juravlova
(13.95m) snatched the next two spots. Indian
Mayookha Johny, who finished fourth at the first leg
in Jiaxing, was once again unlucky after having
replicated her best-ever 13.71m which put her only
the fifth place on Thursday evening.
The day also witnessed excellent dual in women’s
high jump by Uzbekistan’s former world junior
champion and reigning Asian Games gold medallist
Svetlana Radzivil and Thailand’s Wanida Boonwan, the
SEA Games silver medallist. Wanida astonished
everyone as she cleared the height of 1.92m, her
career best to date, and locked in a battle with
Radzivil for the first place. Both the jumpers fell
at the next height (1.95m) but the Uzbek pockets the
gold with fewer failures in the earlier attempts.
Time and again hosts China made a clean sweep in
men’s long jump with Yun Zhiming took the gold this
time with an improved 8.05m leap. However in triple
jump Korea’s Kim Deokhyeon overwhelmed local star
Bin Dong by 1 cm for “numero uno” spot.
On
the other side of the field, discus thrower Wu Jian,
a former world youth championship bronze medallist
from China pulled a surprise by pushing the
favourite Iranians Mahmoud Samimi and Mohammed
Samimi to minor placings. The chinese thrower,
second in the previous meeting at Jiaxing, set out
the disc to 62.56m—the best mark of the day.
Sajad Moradi, another Iranian who dominates the
middle distance in the continent, however made it
easy as he achieved his second victory from Indian
Ghamanda Ram. Moradi clocked 1:47.95 as against
Ghamanda’s 1:48.17, the time difference of 0.22 secs
was the same from the previous race! China’s Yang
Xiaofei was third at 1:48.37. Moradi’s country-mate
Sajad Hashemiahan took the men’s 400m title.
Chen Qiang and Guzel Khubbieva retained their sprint
crowns from the first leg.
Fan Jiang won the men’s
110m hurdles comfortably, but Sun Yawei lost the
women’s 100m hurdles to Kazakh star Natalya
Ivoninskaya at the post. As expected Natalya’s
colleagues Marina Maslyanko (400m) have ruled their
respective events with ease. Ram. Murali Krishnan
for AAA |
|
|
Asian Grand Prix – Chen and Khubbieva
fastest in first leg
Jiaxing, China – 22 May
2011: A heavy downpour prior to the start of this
year’s Asian Grand Prix series made things difficult
as the wet and cold conditions hampered the
proceedings of first leg here on Sunday evening.
Putting aside the barriers,
Chen Qiang (20) spearheaded host China’s challenge
by taking the men’s 100m sprint in a time of 10.38
secs. Hong Kong sprinter Lai Chun Ho, fourth at last
year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, won the silver in
10.41s while another local athlete Liang Jiahong got
the bronze medal in 10.42 secs.
Guzel Khubbieva, the reigning Asian Games gold
medalist, a veteran of many medals at the Asian GP
series of the past had easily held off the challenge
from Chinese junior Wei Yongli and her compatriot
Tao Yujia to win the women’s crown in 11.46 secs.
Yongli posted a personal best 11.52s for the second
place while Yujia was third at 11.57s.
Matsko regains
title and record in 800m
Kazakh half-miler Margarita
Matsko, who dominated the event ever since its
inception in 2009, once again proved her mettle by
improving her meet mark to 2:01.63 on the rain-hit
day. India’s Tintu Luka, who halted Matsko’s
unbeaten run by taking the final leg of Asian GP
last year at Chennai, gave a skip to this year’s
series. Tintu represented Asia-Pacific in the
Continental Cup last year at Split, Croatia, where
she posted her career best 1:59.17 while finished
fifth among the World’s elite runners. Tintu however
managed only a bronze medal at the Asian Games while
Matsko evolved as a champion in Guangzhou.
Uzbekistan’s Anna Sidorova
with a PB of 2:02.38 was second at Jiaxing while Li
Yong of China, the only other athlete in fray,
completed third in 2:08.76.
From the land of Liu Xiang,
former Olympic and World champion, Fan Jiang emerged
as a victor in men’s 110m hurdles. The current Asian
Indoor champion has made a giant leap by improving
his personal best to a whooping 13.49 secs,
two-tenths of a second faster than his previous
timing. Iranian Rohallah Ashagiri (13.73s) and
Jiang’s teammate Huang Hao (13.94s) have occupied
the next two spots.
China ruled men’s
long jump
Chinese long jumpers made a
clean sweep of medals with Xiaoyi Zhang become the
winner with a jump of 7.89m. Bin Dong took the gold
in triple jump at 16.50m. Mohammed Samimi continued
the Iranian tradition of winning the discus throw by
setting out the disc to 62.78m.
Li Yanmei led a Chinese 1-2
in women’s triple jump with Xie Limei finished
second with 13.93m, just 5 cm shy of the winner’s
mark. Indian Mayookha Johny registered a career best
effort of 13.71m, which was 1 cm short of the
national record, but also missed the bronze medal to
Uzbek jumper Aleksandra Kotlyarova who touched the
sand at 13.80m.
Chinese women snatched the
top two spots in discus and javelin throw events.
Yang Fei (58.01m) and Xue Juan (56.75m) had won the
discus and javelin titles respectively. (Ram. Murali
Krishnan for AAA) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
