Mighty China looks certain to extend reign

JAKARTA (JP): China's mean gold mining machine sped into top gear yesterday to assure itself of the overall title at the 11th Asian Track and Field Championships here.

With just nine gold medals on offer on the closing day today, nobody has a chance of catching up to China's bountiful medal bonanza of 16 golds, four silvers and three bronzes.

Qatar led the rest of Asia's challenge with three golds, two silvers and three bronzes, to take a distant second on the penultimate day of the championships.

Yesterday China reaped six golds after temporarily faltering in its fierce charge on Friday. Bahrain, Sri Lanka and Qatar took the four other top honors.

Indonesia, tuning up for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, took some consolation when Tri Asih Handayani gave her team its second silver in a lopsided 10,000m race against world record holder Wang Junxia of China.

Yet, Qatar's Ibrahim Ismail and Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe shined most by breaking old records en route to golden runs.

Ismail retained his title in the men's 400m, clocking 44.96 to shave 0.59 off the record he set in the previous meet in Manila two years ago.

Susanthika Jayasinghe ran her best of 23.00 in the women's 200m dash, a 24-second improvement of the old mark set by China's Chen Zhaojing in Manila two years ago.

It was sweet revenge for the 19-year-old Sri Lankan girl who was placed second by Chinese Cui Danfeng in the women's 100m dash by a mere one hundredth of a second in a hairbreadth defeat on Thursday.

"I am in my top form today. I just ran out of steam in the final 30 meters when I fell in the 100m," the clerical assistant for the John Keel foodstuffs producer said. "As a matter of fact, I worried about the 200m instead of 100m," she added.

Jayasinghe won the silver in Asian Games 200m race last year.

Sri Lanka struck a double when Shriyani Kulawansa, shrugged off her illness to win the women's 100m hurdles in 13.29, still below her best of 13.25 set in the Bob Hasan Invitational meet last year. She was hospitalized three days ago for a throat infection.

Bahrain's first gold was presented by 18-year-old Matter Aziz in the men's 200m dash after clocking his best of 20.76 yesterday. "We came here just to participate. His win is indeed a big surprise for us," said his coach Hamada Ahmed.

China's six golds came from Ma Wei's 58.44m in the men's discus throw, Bi Zhong's 70.30m in the men's hammer throw, Zhang Hengyun's 52.06sec in the women's 400m dash, Ren Ruiping's 13.99m in the women's triple jump, Sui Xinmei's 18.87m in the women's shot put and Wang's 15min 25.65sec in the women's 5,000m.

Wang, who became the Chinese word for gold in this meet, and a pack of poorly showing opponents, virtually repeated Thursday's show in the women's 10,000m.

She outran her closest rival, home runner Tri Asih, by about one lap. The two runners were separated by 1:14. In the 10,000m on Thursday Wang eased past Tri Asih by about one-and-a-half laps.

Apart from the difference, everything was more or less the same. Wang, who is used to 23 Celcius at home, said she struggled to beat Jakarta's heat, which made her feel uncomfortable.

"I didn't expect to break any record in this championship. My target here was just winning gold medals," the former student of a track and field school in Liaoning said. (arf)

Medals tally

G S B Total 1. China 16 11 4 31 2. Qatar 3 2 3 8 3. South Korea 2 4 0 6 4. Kazakhstan 2 2 4 8 5. Sri Lanka 2 1 1 4 6. Saudi Arabia 2 0 0 2 7. Japan 1 4 5 10 8. Chinese Taipei 1 1 1 3 9. Turkmenistan 1 1 0 2 10. India 1 0 4 5 11. Bahrain 1 0 0 1 12. Uzbekistan 0 3 3 6 13. Indonesia 0 2 0 2 14. Thailand 0 1 0 1 15. Malaysia 0 0 3 3 16. Iraq 0 0 2 2 17. Iran 0 0 1 1 18. Philippines 0 0 1 1

Today's program

08.00 decathlon (110m hurdles) 08.45 decathlon (discus throw) 10.15 pole vault 15.00 women's triple jump 15.00 decathlon (javelin throw) 15.00 women's high jump 15.30 women's 4X400m relay 15.45 men's 4X400m relay 16.10 women's 1,500m 16.30 men's 1,500m 16.50 decathlon (1,500m) 17.10 women's 4X100m relay 17.30 men's 4X100m relay 17.45 closing ceremony