Bhubaneswar: Indians made an excellent start to the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship with National record holder Muhammed Anas making it to the semi-finals of the men’s 400m in the morning session here at the Kalinga Stadium.
Incheon Asian Games bronze medallist and Anas’ compatriot Arokia Rajiv too moved up from Heat 2 of the same race, just as the third Indian entry, Amoj Jacob also easing into the next round with a first-place finish in Heat 3. The semi-finals will be held in the evening session.
Anas finished second in Heat 1 behind Sri Lankan challenger Dilip Ruwan. Rajiv and Jacob led through the major part of their respective heats to qualify. Asian indoor championship bronze medalist Ahmed Mubarak of Oman was the winner of Heat 4.
Chitra P U qualified for the semi-finals from Heat 2 in the women’s 1500m. Monika Chaudhary finished in fourth place in Heat 1. In the men’s metric mile, India’s Ajay Kumar Saroj from Heat 1 and Siddharth Adhikary from Heat 2 qualified with a second-place finish behind Asian Games’ bronze medal winner Jamal Hairane of Qatar.
In the men’s decathlon, Japan’s Kazuya Kawasaki took an early lead with the 100m sprint leg of the event. India’s Abhishek Shetty was battling it out in a strong field that includes Asian Championship silver medalist Guo Qi from China.
The men’s high jump also got under way with China’s Asian Games’ silver medalist Zhang Guowei and others setting a modest qualification standard of 2.10m.
National record-holder in discus Vikas Gowda will go for a hattrick of Asian Championship titles after winning gold in Wuhan (2015) and Pune (2013) in the evening session.
China’s Ding Bangchao, who cleared the bar at 5.70m in Jinan on May 18, will lead in the men’s pole vault final. He will face stiff challenge from Japan’s Masaki Ejima and Husain Asim Al-Hizam of Saudi Arabia.
The 5000m race will see both the Indian men and women taking up their respective positions in the finals. Indian women will also take the field in javelin, shot put and long jump finals as well. The session will be spiced up with the heats of the men’s 100m which includes the Asian record holder and defending champion Femi Seun Ogunode of Qatar. National champion and local hero Amiya Kumar Mallick will hope to put up a strong show. (UNI)
