Nanjing Asian Youth Games 2013 - Athletics Day 1

Asian Youth Games – day one review (19 August 2013)

Three exciting field events dominated day one of the athletics program at the second Asian Youth Games, being held in Nanjing.

Heavy rain during the day cleared for the evening’s competition which including sprint heats and finals of the boys shot, javelin and pole vault and the girls high jump.

Aged just 15 years, Hussain Al Hizam is Saudi Arabia’s best ever pole vaulter, raising the national open record on five occasions this year, taking it from 4.95 to 5.27m. Tonight in Nanjing, he opened his competition with 4.60m which he cleared on his second attempt to put him in second place behind Iraq’s Muntadher Abdulwahid who had cleared on his first attempt. At 4.70m, Abdulwahid missed his attempts, while Al Hizam negotiated the height on his third attempt to take the title.

 Hussain Al Hizam 
(by Bouhouche blog)

The boys’ javelin was a come from behind win to Chinese Taipei’s Jenwei Tsai. After three rounds China’s Zhuqing Su led comfortably with his first round throw of 67.35m, ahead of Sungming Lee (TPE) on 65.90m and Ao Zhou (CHN) with 64.94m. But the competition changed dramatically when in round five, Tsai, a student at National Yilan Senior High School, launched the javelin out to 70.41m to take the lead by over three metres. Su tried his best and responded with a personal record of 67.51m on the event’s final throw, to confirm the silver medal.

"My best throw tonight was made when I felt well and I found my confidence back,” said Tsai.
“My earlier throws were not that good, so I adjusted mentality. I took a medal, which made me happy and satisfied. But I won't have a party or travel in Nanjing to celebrate. I will fly back (home) soon, because when school starts I will have many other competitions."

Favourite for the boys’ shot, was local athlete Jianping Han who started slowly, eventually securing the victory with his very last throw of 18.87m. Japan’s Yume Ando, led early with 17.36m in round three, eventually putting 18.07m in round four for his best of the day.

"I am very excited and I had never thought about this result. I broke my own record (18.50m) and reached a new level - 18.87m.,” said Han.
"I am now studying at Jiangsu 101 High School and I keep training during my study time."

China’s Manqi Ge, a semi-finalist at the recent IAAF world youth championships clocked the quickest time in the girls 100 metres round one. Ge, running in heat two ran 12.07, just quicker than her 12.08 she clocked in Donestsk. Her main opposition appears to be from winners of heat three and four, Kayla Richardson (PHI) and Min Song (CHN). There will be two Richardson’s in tomorrow night’s semi-final as Kayla’s twin Kyla Richardson also progressed.

There was no clear favourite amongst the round one winners of the boys 100 metres. Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Han Yang led the qualifiers on 10.84, but tied on 10.85 were Nutthapong Veerarwongratanasiri (THA) and Zhenkun Xia (CHN). Xia looks to be the main threat.

“I’m coming back from injury,” he said. “My goal is to enjoy the games.”

In the final event to be decided on the night, Luwei Guan (CHN) took the girls high jump with a clearance of 1.65m.

In the girls 400m heats, the fastest time was recorded by Guifen Huang (CHN), who clocked 55.39, while in the boy’s long jump Chun-Sheng Huang (TPE) led the qualifying round with a leap of 7.09m.

David Tarbotton for AdrianSprints.com