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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