74th Singapore Open Athletics Championships 2012, Results and Summary

The 74th edition of Singapore Open Athletics Championships kicked off today (25.08.2012) and runs until tomorrow at Bishan stadium. Around 30 teams from 12 countries (SIN, MAS, THA, PHI, INA, BRU, VIE, JPN, HKG, TPE, IND...) are registered in the annual meeting. Summary and results;

MEN
The best performance in the first day (26.08.2012) produced in the men's 400m hurdles. Japanese hurdler Yasuhiro Fueki who has a personal best (pb) of 49.94s set in Osaka (National championships) this year ran a blistering  pace and came close to the mark in a time of 50.29s, and outclassed Philippine's Junrey Bano in 2nd place (51.93s).

Vietnam's Nguyen Xuan Trong wins the two-lap event (800m), recording a time of 1:54.61s, leaving Philippine's Wenlie Maulas (1:55.14s) and Singapore's Soh Hun Qun (1:55.51s) in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

Strong headwinds (-1.7) in the 200m race but that's not preventing Thailand's Somchai Kittisuntornrak to win the race and recorded 21.87s, beating Singapore's Lee Cheng Wei (21.99s) in 2nd place, and Lo Yen Yao (22.30s) of Chinese Taipei in 3rd.

Philippine's Julius Sermona, 34, won the 10000m race easily in a time of 32:51.69,  but way off his best 30:16.91s set in Guangzhou in 2009, obviously resulted from "lack of challenge" in the event.

Local thrower Scott Wong Wei Gen wins the shot put after producing a pb of 15.89m in his first throw. He tried to improve on his mark in the last attempt but only managed to do 15.86m. Japan's Hirofumi Oyama in 2nd place in a distance of 14.16m.

In long jump, Japanese jumpers dominated the top podiums when Kenichi Sato (7.30, 0.0) and Masaya Tsuji (7.29m, 0.0) secured the first two places from local jumper Lai Yong Hui (7.28m, +1.8) in 3rd place.

It was a very tough competition in the javelin throw. India's junior thrower Yadab Manoj, 19, opened his campaign in 65.68m, which is enough for gold medal, but it was then followed by a further 65.85m in his 2nd attempt, and once again improved to 66.11m in last attempt. Another junior thrower Ku Chia Ho of Chinese Taipei was close in 2nd place with 65.43m. Singaporean-based Malaysian thrower Akid Chong Mohd Isham was in 3rd with a pb of 63.87m, slightly ahead of another thrower of Chinese Taipei Chung Cheng Hung (63.63m).

WOMEN
Japanese sprinter Asana Koo, 23, takes the 200m title by clocking 24.96s in a race against strong headwinds of 1.5m/s. Teammate Megumi Shimizu who has better pb (24.06s) than Koo (24.41s) was in 2nd in 25.06s. Thailand's Khanrutai Pakdee third in 25.91s.

As in the men's 400m hurdles, Japanese athletes rules the women's section after Miyabi Tago (58.45s) and Miki Sawada (59.91s) finished as 1st-2nd winners.

India's Annu Rani has thrown 52.41m in her 4th attempt to win the javelin throw. It was her 2nd best throw of all-time after a 53.95m throw set in Hyderabad earlier in June 2012.

The first four in the shot put were non-Southeast Asians. Chinese Taipei's Lai Li Chin (19) threw 15.31m to win the first place. She was trailed by two Japanese throwers Chiaki Yokomizo (14.80m) and Chihir Shigeymana (14.56m) in 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. Her teammate Chiang Ru Ching in 4th place (14.03m).

Malaysia's Nurul Amira Mohd Nafiah is back in her shape after 30days of fasting in Ramadhan's month, registering 5.96m (0.0) in the long jump from her first jump. Next jumps were 5.91m, 5.72m, 5.61m, 5.85m and 5.89m. Japanese Fumie Takehara the Asian championships silver medalist in heptathlon was only in 2nd in 5.84m (0.0) mark but close to her pb 5.98m, with local jumper Nurul Jannah Zulkifli (5.46m,+0.1) was at her good shape close to pb 5.47m but placed in 3rd.

Vietnam's Phan Phi Hoai Thanh won the 800m in 2:23.31s, beating only a local runner Evalyne Christine (2:35.98) as there were only two finishers in the race.

Download day 1 full results here (courtesy of SAA)


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