China remains Asian best in track and field
China remains Asian best in track and field
JAKARTA (JP): China has preserved its long-standing grip on
the Asian track and field but it is not as strong as it was.
After five days of struggle, the Chinese closed the 11th Asian
Track and Field Championships here yesterday with a belting medal
collection of 20 golds, 13 silvers and five bronzes to retain the
overall title at the biennial event.
Qatar, spearheaded by its male runners, took two more golds in
the closing day of the competitions to finish second for the
first time with five golds, two silvers and four bronzes.
Japan made a late fightback to win two golds from decathlete
Hitoshi Maruono and women's 1,500-meter runner Kumiko Okamoto to
lay third overall, ahead of Kazakhstan which added one more gold
through women's high jumper Svetlana Zalevskaya. The two teams
garnered three gold apiece, but Japan gained better silver medal
haul.
However, China, which stormed to its last four golds
yesterday, left the championships with some grumbles over its
unconvincing showing. China scooped 23 gold medals to triumph in
the 1993 meet in Manila.
"Our contenders have grown much stronger now. The Asian
athletic map looks to go to a balance," Lou Dapeng, a China's
congressman in the Asian Amateur Athletic Association, said of
his team's less-than-expected achievement.
Lou, who was re-elected as one of the association's vice
presidents early this week, said the Chinese athletes failed to
reach the utmost since they were entering a long rest period
after a hard-fought struggle in the National Games early last
month.
"Our athlete fight tooth and nail when the don their
provincial colors," Lou said. Chinese National Games sprang a
surprise in 1993 when two female middle-distance runners, Wang
Junxia and Qu Yunxia, smashed two world records. Both Wang and Qu
maintained their emphatic form by winning gold medals in the
World Championships in Stuttgart shortly after the National
Games.
A weakened China, without Wang and Qu, lost its storming feat
in the last world track and field meet in Gothenburg, Sweden,
winning just a silver.
Chinese new comers, however, heralded a notable prospect in
sprint events here. They took the advantage of a weakened Qatari
men's team to win the 4X100m relay, in addition to their 100m
victory.
The Chinese quartet of Lin Wei, Li Xiaoping, Huang Dangwei and
Huang Geng clocked a below-par time of 39.49 seconds. Qatar,
losing its inspiration after Asia's fastest runner Talal Mansoor
retired, finished only third behind the Thais in 40.16.
Qatar made amends for the sprint double blow as Mohammed
Sulaiman dashed to the 1,500m gold in 3:41.33. He fell short of
his own Asian mark of 3:32.73 he set in Koln last year.
The Gulf team struck a second in the 4X400m relay after a
quartet of Ali Ismail, Farah Ibrahim, Abdurrahman Hasan and
Ibrahim Ismail clocked the best time of 3:05.78.
"I'm satisfied with our outcomes here. Even without Talal we
make improvement," Qatari coach Mohammad Abu Al-Ainien said. "We,
as well as all the teams, would have gained better results if we
have enough time to prepare," he added.
China also prevailed at the women's relay races when its
runners swept the 4X100m and 4X400m. (amd)
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