Asian
Games athletics ended with five new games records on
the last day.
Guangzhou, China – 26 November 2010
What a games! It was indeed
a feast for everyone who assembled at the Aoti Main
Stadium in Guangzhou and those billion audiences who
watched it on TV broadcasts across the continent.
Just
a month after their golden glow in the Commonwealth
Games at New Delhi, Indian 1600m relay quartet of
Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, A.C. Ashwini and Mandeep
Kaur gathered once again to retain the gold the
national team won four years ago in Doha.
Kazakhstan’s Marina Maslyonko ran a superb opener in
49.36 secs in front of Indian national record holder
Manjeet Kaur at the end of lap one. Sini Jose at the
first exchange started running the race of her life
to handed-in the baton to training partner A.C.
Ashwini at 1:45.91, just ahead of Victoria
Yalovtseva. Ashwini, fresh from her victory in 400m
hurdles yesterday, had a marvelous third leg to
maintain the lead to 2:37.23 and to anchor Mandeep
Kaur. Olga Tereshkova, who earlier won the 400m gold
for Kazakhstan and naturally the strongest in her
team, started challenging when 250m to go. Mandeep,
after trailing few yards, surged past again and
started to pull off till the finish and stop the
clock at 3:29.02 for the new Games record time.
Tereshkova came second at 3:30.03 national record
for the silver while the hosts China returned a
season’s best 3:30.89 for the bronze medal. The
Indian team however fell short of 3:27.77 it clocked
back in Delhi for the CWG gold
Bahrain's
Mimi Belete won the women's 5000m. Indian duo Preeja
Sreedharan and Kavita Raut made a late kick to
challenge Mimi Belete in the end but had to settled
on silver and bronze. Japan’s Fukushi Kayako did the
front running in most of the race while the Indians
as well as Bahraini runners Mimi and Kareema hang on
with her. With two laps to go the Mimi made her
move, she increased the pace and the Indians trying
to catch her in the last 200m. It was a late
decision to charge the leader as Mimi was in full
swing at that time. Preeja however made a gallant
effort to close in but was three tenths of a second
short at the post (15:15.59 to 15:15.89) with Kavita
yards behind at third place in 15:16.54—all three
personal bests and amazingly half a minute faster
than their previous best timings!
Team
China did fireworks to a national best of 38.78s for
the gold while Chinese Taipei took the silver
position in 39.05s.Thailand snatched the third place
with 39.09s. The women’s sprint relay title went to
Thai athletes who exhibited a class of their own to
take the top spot in 44.09 secs. China and Japan
with season’s bests of 44.22 and 44.41 secs took the
next two places.
Saudi Arabians clinched the
gold in the men's 4x400m relay with another national
best 3:02.30. Japan (3:02.43) and China (3:03.66)
finish on the second and third place respectively.
Asian record holder and defending champion Sultan
Abdulmajeed Al-Habashi of Saudi Arabia improved his
Games record to 20.57m for the shot put gold after
some initial hi-cups. China’s Zhang Jun (19.59m) and
Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ming Huang (19.48m) were
claimed silver and bronze medals while Asian
Champion Om Prakash’s best turned out to be only
19.17m as he started with an unbelievable 15.88m on
this evening.
In
a similar fashion Li Yanxi retained his triple jump
gold with a season’s best 16.94m. Season leader
Renjith Maheshwary of India who registered 17.07m
for the Commonwealth bronze at Delhi, could not go
beyond 16.76m and remain at fourth as four years
ago. Kazakh Yevgeniy Ektov edged local star Cao Shuo
by 2 cm (16.86 to 16.84) for the silver.
Bilisuma
Shugi (Ethiopian origin) representing Bahrain set
new games record timing in the 10000m with a
sensational timing of 27:32.72s. World championship
medalist James Kwalia of Qatar made for pace (13:46
5km, ended 7th) while his team mate Essa Ismail
pushed from 7-9 km and got silver in 27:33.09. Third
place went to defender and 5000m winner Hassan
Mahboob of Bahrain (27:40.07)
In the Men’s javelin throw
final, Japan´s World bronze medalist Yukifumi
Murakami improved his javelin best from Berlin
qualification by 5 cm to 83.15 win in second
attempt. Second place went to Korean Park Jae-Myong
(79.92) and bronze to Rinat Tarzumanov of Uzbekistan
(79.65).
Uzbekistan
celebrated first women high jump gold since 1994.
Svetlana Radzivil cleared 1.95m for the gold and
also set new games record. Second place went to
Nadezda Dusanova also from Uzbekistan clearing jump
of 1.93m. Anna Ustinova of Kazakhstan (1.90m) won
bronze medal on count-back over China's Zheng
Xingjuan (1.90m)
Sensational
victories by Ashwini and Abraham over 400m hurdles Guangzhou, China – 25
November 2010 : It was a thrilling evening. New
champions emerged everywhere except in decathlon in
which Dmitriy Karpov defended his title.
Indian athletes annexed two
gold medals and a bronze on Thursday at the
Guangdong Olympic Stadium, a venue where the Chinese
national anthem played only once in the day as Si
Tianfeng walked the grueling 50 km distance in a
Games Record of 3 hours 47 minutes and 4 seconds to
gold. Mysore born A.C.
Ashwini, who represents Jharkhand at the nationals,
ran a well judged race in women’s 400m hurdles,
clocking a personal best 56.18 secs – the second
fastest by an Indian in this event, to become
victorious in the Asian Games. Ashwini, who started
taking part in hurdles only from the beginning of
this year and aptly won the national title at Kochi
in May improved upon her timings rapidly ever since
to win the coveted title at the continental level.
She was the third Indian to win the Asian Games gold
in this event after M.D. Valsamma and P.T. Usha did
it in 1982 and 1986 respectively.
China’s Wang Xing, who
threatened to grab the gold from the Indian
eventually settled with the silver in 56.76 secs as
Ashwini accelerated to move forward at the home
straight for a comfortable lead at the end. Japanese
Satomi Kubokura snatched away the bronze from the
second Indian in the fray, Jauna Murmu, by five
hundredth of a second (56.83 to 56.88 secs).
In
the men’s race defending champion Kenji Narisako of
Japan showed brilliant form by leading the race from
the start. India’s Joseph Abraham, a World
championship semi-finalist in 400m hurdles three
years ago at Osaka, came from behind and moved
forward in the eighth hurdle. But a tiring Abraham
slowed after the final hurdle and thus allowed the
Japanese to hang on with him at the last metres to
finish. At the post both Abraham and Narisako frozen
on the frame together that gave some anxious moments
for the Indian fans. However the track referee found
Narisako ‘cutting the hurdle’ midway on outside the
edge and disqualified him under rule 168.7a that
shattered his dream of getting a double.
Abraham hence became the
undisputed winner and the first Indian to win the
gold in this event. Earlier Teja won a silver medal
behind Japanese Okano Eitaro at the inaugural
edition of the Asian Games in 1951 at Delhi. Abraham
clocked a season’s best 49.96 secs, a time which
equaled his silver medal winning Asian championships
at the same venue last year.
As usual Tintu Luka ran a fast first lap in women’s
800m, leading the pack to 57.82 secs at the bell.
Kazakhstan’s Margarita Matsko moved ahead in last
50m and Vietnamese Troung Thanh Hang followed suit.
Defending champion Maryam Jamal, who earlier won the
1500m here, lost her rhythm and trailing behind.
Both Matsko and Hang posted personal bests (2:00.29
and 2:00.91) for the top two spots while Tintu
finished third in 2:01.36 for the bronze. A spent
out Jamal finished sixth in 2:06.07.
World University Games and
Asian champion Sajad Moradi of Iran comfortably won
the men’s title in 800m clocking 1:45.45. His Arab
colleagues Adnan Almntfage (Iraq, 1:45.88) and
Musaeb Abdulrahman Bala (Qatar, 1:46.19) clocked
career best timings to take the remaining medals.
Two Indians were in the
sprint finals today. The gritty Satti Geetha powered
her way to finish fifth in the women’s 200m with a
season’s best 23.91 secs. Suresh Sathya was one
place lower in the men’s race at 21.07 secs.
Chisato Fukushima of Japan
took the sprint double by winning the women’s event
in 23.62 secs, adding to it to her 100m gold she won
earlier. The men’s honour went to Qatari star Femi
Seun Ogunode in 20.43 secs in the absence of his
compatriot Samuel Francis who pulled out owing to a
hamstring injury.
Kazakhstan’s continental record-holder (15.25m) Olga
Rypakova stamped her class by recorded a new Games’
mark of 14.78m to win the women’s triple jump.
Doha-2006 victor Xie Limei was well over half a
metre behind to claim the silver in 14.18m. Thai
jumper Thitima Muangjin was the bronze winner in
13.85m as Indian athlete M.A. Prajusha was
anon-starter. Korean Lee
Yeon Kyung won the women’s 100m hurdles from Kazakh
Natalya Ivoninskaya by one hundredth of a second
(13.23 to 13.24 secs). Yuki Ebihara of Japan pegged
to yet another Games record 61.56m on the sixth
round to seize the gold in Javelin throw (Ram.
Murali Krishnan for AAA)
Spilt, 4 Sep 2010: Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan
representing Asia Pacific team in the IAAF / VTB
Bank Continental Cup won the women's triple jump
with a championship record of 15.25m. It is also a
new Asian record and 7th all time best performance
in the world. Olga started her season with a bang by
world indoor title, since then she performed consistently
and today was the pinnacle of her performance.
Another Asian athlete China's Li Yenfeng registered
the biggest upset of the day by beating local
favorite Sandra Perkovic in the women discus throw
by half a meter. Li threw 63.79m to win the gold
medal for Asia Pacific team. Rashid
Ahmed Al-Mannai of Qatar won men's high jump
with a person best performance of 2.28m and a new
personal best. Earlier, Dilshod Nazarov of
Tajikistan and Ali Mohamed Al-Zinkawi of Kuwait claimed
opening medals for Asia Pacific by winning silver
and bronze respectively in the men's Hammer throw
with 78.76m and 76.73m. Japanese men's relay
team representing Asia Pacific won silver medal in
the men's 4x100m relay with a time of 39.28sec. Team
America won the gold in 38.25sec. Team Asia Pacific
was trailing on 4th place with 134 points at the end
of day one.
Asian
team will take part in the IAAF / VTB Bank
Continental Cup at Spilt
( Croatia ) beginning on 4th Sept 2010. For the
first time Oceania Pacific team will be merged with
Asia and new team will be called Asia Pacific (
ASP)
First Youth Olympic Games officially under way in Singapore
Singapore, 14 Aug 2010 - The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games officially got under way today with an Opening Ceremony at the Marina Bay Floating Stadium in downtown Singapore.
With the city skyline providing an impressive backdrop, some 3600 athletes aged 14 to 18 marched in the Parade of Nations, which was followed by speeches from International Olympic Committee President (IOC) Jacques Rogge and Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee Chairman (SYOGOC) Ser Miang Ng.
“Tonight we open a new chapter in the history of the Olympic Movement,” said President Rogge. “From this moment on, young people around the world have a chance to participate in a global event that combines sport, education and culture.”
The IOC President added that he expected the first-ever Youth Olympic Games, which run from 14 to 26 August, to produce high-level sporting competition within an Olympic environment while at the same time providing the athletes with a platform to learn, share and build friendships through a supporting Culture and Education Programme.
Attending the Opening Ceremony were Singapore Prime Minister Hsien Loong, IAAF Seniore Vice President and Coordination Commission Chairman for the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games Sergey Bubka, and Youth Olympic Games Ambassador Yelena Isinbayeva, among others.
Addressing the athletes, President Rogge said their participation at the Youth Olympic Games would help them “learn the difference between winning and being a champion. To win, you merely have to cross the finish line first. To be a champion, you have to inspire admiration for your character, as well as for your physical talent.”
( IAAF)
Colombo,
9 May 2010: Mr. Sergey Bubka of Ukarine, who is
currently the world pole vault record holder, and
IAAF Vice President was impressed with the talent
and dedication of the Sri Lankan athletes. Bubka was
on a short visit to Sri Lanka, was an observer at
the Kids Athletic Programme held at the Mahinda
Rajapaksa International Stadium in Diyagama on
Saturday morning.
“To improve in the standard of athletics, you
have to improve on the number of coaches and their
knowledge and should have more facilities throughout
the country. Athletes must also compete in foreign
competitions and they must go with their coaches so
that they can increase on their knowledge,”
observed Bubka. Being a senior vice president of the
IAAF, Bubka said that US$ 40 million is allocated to
extend support to Asian countries so that they can
improve on the facilities for their athletes.
Mr. Teruji KOGAKE, Honorary Vice President of Japanese Federation passed
away at 21:43(JST) on May 9, 2010 at the hospital in Tokyo due to "Liver
Failure" aged at 77 years old. He was a Head Coach
of Japanese Federation for many years and a Vice President from
1995 to 2005. Mr. Teruji also served as Vice President of Japanese Olympic
Committee(1999~2003) and IAAF, Veterans' Committee Member(1995~2007).
On behalf of the President and Council of the Asian Athletics Association and Athletics Family of Asia
, Mr. Maurice Nicholas, Secretary General of AAA
sent deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.
He said that Mr. Teruji was always friendly and unassuming of disposition and was always willing to help other coaches who needed his advice.
KOBE, May 7 (AP) - (Kyodo)—A plan has been approved to hold the Asian athletics championships on July 7-10 next year at Kobe Sports Park, organizers said on Friday.
It will be the first time Japan will host the event since the 1998 Fukuoka meet.
The meet will be held about one month prior to the 2011 world athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea starting Aug. 27.
Athletes who triumph at the Asian championships will pass the A qualifying standard to compete in the world championships
Jordan,
March 28, 2010: Fouad
Habash (Syria), technical director of Arab Athletics
Association passed away on 26th March. Fouad Habash was a
major expert on Arab Athletics and had contributed a
lot to the World of Athletics.
Nomi City (Japan) 14 March 2010: Asian 20Km
Walking Championship 2010
Local athlete Yusuke Suzuki won Asian 20km walking
championship title with a timing of 1 hour 20min and
6 sec followed by
South Korean Byun Young-Jun with 1
hour 22 min and 7 sec. SUGIMOTO AKIHIRO of
Japan took third place in 1hour 23min 33
sec.
Asian
champion Rypakova rose to stardom with a golden leap in triple jump!
Doha, Qatar – 13 March 2010 : Olga Rypakova finally achieved what she was longing for—the World title in triple jump—as she leaped to a career best 15.14m in the Aspire Dome on Saturday and thus become the first Asian victor in the ongoing 13th World Indoor championships in the Qatari capital.
The women’s triple jump was incidentally the first event which decided a title here.
Interestingly Rypakova’s jump was the second longest in the World Indoors behind Russian superstar Tatyana Lebedeva’s 15.36m global best registered during the 2004 edition in Budapest.
Fourth at both World indoor meet at Valencia and the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Rypakova was in a great form this season as she annexed a golden double by winning long and triple jumps at the Asian Indoor Games at Hanoi in November 2009.
Having qualified with a modest 14.57m behind the favourite Yargelis Savigne of Cuba (14.59m) on Friday, Rypakova faultered on her opening try in the finals before took lead of the elite group with a 14.78m in her second jump—no other athlete go beyond it on Saturday. She then registered 14.17m on third before a “no mark” on her fourth and an improvised 14.93m in the fifth before achieving a world leading and title winning 15.14m on her final leap.
Savigne settled for silver with 14.86m while Anna Pyatykh of Russia got the bronze in 14.64m.
Other notable winners of the day were Australian Steven Hooker in pole vault with a meet record 6.01m and Croatian woman Blanka Vlasic with a modest 2m high jump.
(Ram. Murali Krishnan for AAA)
All set for the big day in Doha!
The Aspire Dome in Qatari capital, venue for 13th World Indoor Championships in Athletics, is wearing a
colorful look as it welcomes the cream of athletes from around the globe for the three day meet which scheduled to begin on Friday (12 March).
It is the first major global event the Asian continent organizing in 2010, prior to the inaugural Youth Olympic Games at Singapore this August as well as the Commonwealth Games at New Delhi in October and the Asian Games at Guangzhou in the fag end of the year.
Doha is an important destination in the World sports calendar in recent times. It is the second city in Asia to host the World Indoors after Maebashi in Japan which celebrated an excellent edition in 1999.
A large number of medalists from previous editions of the championships together with outdoor world championships and Olympians are taking part in Doha. Qatar as a host country is having high hopes on its athletes. Besides this other gulf countries like Bahrain and the East Asian bloc led by mighty China are well prepared for the big occasion.
Many Asian athletes have already revealed medal-winning ambitions. Former World and Olympic champion Liu Xiang of China, on his comeback trail, logging horn with two-time World Indoor 60m hurdles champion Terrence Trammell (USA) and Cuban world 110m hurdles record-holder Dayron Robles. The athletic fans around the universe are already looking for the "titanic clash" from the above race.
The world record ambition of Yelena Isinbayeva and many other promising athletes will make it a memorable weekend in the middle-east nation.
(Ram. Murali Krishnan)
Asian Athletics Association wishes all its member federations,
council members, athletes, coaches and technical officials from Asia
a very Happy New Year 2010.
It is another important year for athletics as Asian countries
continues to host successful global events in athletics besides multisport extravaganza. Doha will host IAAF World Indoor Championships while Delhi is gearing up towards the Commonwealth Games. City of Guangzhou, after the successful Asian championships last year, once again welcomes Asian athletes for the quadrangular multisport Asian Games. To cap it all, Singapore is hosting the inaugural World Youth Games in August.
This apart, Doha is all set to launch the IAAF Diamond League which is followed by the Shanghai edition in May 2010. Further, Osaka Grand Prix and Colorful Daegu are important among the fixtures of the newly devised World Challenge one-day meetings.
On the continental scene, India plays a vital role as it organises two events for the second-time with Asian All-Stars Meet in New Delhi and Asian Marathon championships at Pune. The year also witness the Asian Indoor meet at Teheran and continental junior championships at Hanoi, as Vietnam is becoming an important destination for the young aspirants from the continent to test their talents.
Other regular features like the Asian Grand Prix series, Race Walking championships, Cross-country races and regional events like South Asian Games makes 2010 a busy year for everyone concerned with our sport.
A
Bahrain's
Mimi Belete won the women's 5000m. Indian duo Preeja
Sreedharan and Kavita Raut made a late kick to
challenge Mimi Belete in the end but had to settled
on silver and bronze. Japan’s Fukushi Kayako did the
front running in most of the race while the Indians
as well as Bahraini runners Mimi and Kareema hang on
with her. With two laps to go the Mimi made her
move, she increased the pace and the Indians trying
to catch her in the last 200m. It was a late
decision to charge the leader as Mimi was in full
swing at that time. Preeja however made a gallant
effort to close in but was three tenths of a second
short at the post (15:15.59 to 15:15.89) with Kavita
yards behind at third place in 15:16.54—all three
personal bests and amazingly half a minute faster
than their previous best timings!
Team
China did fireworks to a national best of 38.78s for
the gold while Chinese Taipei took the silver
position in 39.05s.Thailand snatched the third place
with 39.09s. The women’s sprint relay title went to
Thai athletes who exhibited a class of their own to
take the top spot in 44.09 secs. China and Japan
with season’s bests of 44.22 and 44.41 secs took the
next two places. 
Abdulmajeed Al-Habashi of Saudi Arabia improved his
Games record to 20.57m for the shot put gold after
some initial hi-cups. China’s Zhang Jun (19.59m) and
Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ming Huang (19.48m) were
claimed silver and bronze medals while Asian
Champion Om Prakash’s best turned out to be only
19.17m as he started with an unbelievable 15.88m on
this evening. 
In
a similar fashion Li Yanxi retained his triple jump
gold with a season’s best 16.94m. Season leader
Renjith Maheshwary of India who registered 17.07m
for the Commonwealth bronze at Delhi, could not go
beyond 16.76m and remain at fourth as four years
ago. Kazakh Yevgeniy Ektov edged local star Cao Shuo
by 2 cm (16.86 to 16.84) for the silver.
Bilisuma
Shugi (Ethiopian origin) representing Bahrain set
new games record timing in the 10000m with a
sensational timing of 27:32.72s. World championship
medalist James Kwalia of Qatar made for pace (13:46
5km, ended 7th) while his team mate Essa Ismail
pushed from 7-9 km and got silver in 27:33.09. Third
place went to defender and 5000m winner Hassan
Mahboob of Bahrain (27:40.07)
Uzbekistan
celebrated first women high jump gold since 1994.
Svetlana Radzivil cleared 1.95m for the gold and
also set new games record. Second place went to
Nadezda Dusanova also from Uzbekistan clearing jump
of 1.93m. Anna Ustinova of Kazakhstan (1.90m) won
bronze medal on count-back over China's Zheng
Xingjuan (1.90m)
Sensational
victories by Ashwini and Abraham over 400m hurdles
In
the men’s race defending champion Kenji Narisako of
Japan showed brilliant form by leading the race from
the start. India’s Joseph Abraham, a World
championship semi-finalist in 400m hurdles three
years ago at Osaka, came from behind and moved
forward in the eighth hurdle. But a tiring Abraham
slowed after the final hurdle and thus allowed the
Japanese to hang on with him at the last metres to
finish. At the post both Abraham and Narisako frozen
on the frame together that gave some anxious moments
for the Indian fans. However the track referee found
Narisako ‘cutting the hurdle’ midway on outside the
edge and disqualified him under rule 168.7a that
shattered his dream of getting a double.
First Youth Olympic Games officially under way in Singapore
