Hosts China finished top of the medals tally at the just concluded inaugural Asian U23 Championships in Ordos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China were the runaway winners with 23 gold, 17 silver and 12 bronze medals followed by Japan (7-8-7), Uzbekistan (5-4-1), India (3-4-9), Qatar (3-2-3) and Chinese Taipei (3-1-1). A total of 14 of the 27 participating countries won at least one medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two-time world U20 triple jump champion Sharifa Davronova and sprinter Muhammad Azeem Fahmi were among the winners as a new chapter was added to Asian Athletics history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malaysian record-holder Fahmi lived up to his billing by taking the 100m crown in 10.17 (-0.7m\/s) on the first day of competition. Fahmi, a bronze medallist at the 2023 Asian Games in Guangzhou, is a student in the United States and helped Auburn University wrest sprint relay titles at the NCAA Championships in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He sent an early warning with 10.15 in the heats. In the final, he edged past Falah Al-Khazaali for the gold, the Iraqi sprinter clocking a national record 10.21 for silver. Qatar\u2019s Salah Nur Ismail Yunis finished third, while home favourite Zeng Keli finished joint fourth with his Chinese teammate Xia Jianduo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a good sign, winning here, going towards the Asian Games,\u201d said Fahmi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xue Kunzhi brought some cheer to the home crowd as she won her 100m title in a personal best of 11.37 (0.7m\/s) less than three weeks on from forming part of the Chinese 4x100m team that secured Asian Relays silver in Shaoxing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have improved my PBs several times this year and attained the Chinese athletics international standard here,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xue was a non-starter in the 200m, while Fahmi was disqualified for a false start. China\u2019s Huang Youwen (20.43w) and Jiang Yutong (23.47) clinched the titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India won a thriller in the mixed pelay, pipping China at the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinese Taipei\u2019s world U20 silver medallist Chu Pin-Hsun unleashed a personal best of 57.31m to win the women\u2019s javelin on day two. China\u2019s world U20 bronze medallist Ma Yinglong also set a PB of 17.11m to win the men\u2019s triple jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The penultimate day witnessed an impressive 400m hurdles victory from the host nation\u2019s Xu Xinfeng. He equalled the national record (48.68) for the top spot ahead of Sri Lankan Ayomal Akalanka Liyanage (49.03). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy pre-race goal was simply to dip under 49 seconds, hence clocking my PB and equalling the national record was completely unexpected,\u201d said Xu. \u201cThis result has given me a huge confidence boost.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shinya Hayashi, who was part of the Japanese team at this year\u2019s World Relays in Gaborone, won the men\u2019s 400m with the second-best time of his career, 45.26. Last year\u2019s Asian Championships bronze medallist Dhzonbibi Khukmova of Uzbekistan clocked a personal best of 51.19 for the women\u2019s title, well ahead of second-placed Naomi Kaylia Johnson (52.34) from the Philippines \u2013 a student at the University of California Los Angeles, who a few weeks earlier became eligible to participate for the Southeast Asian nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Braving the rain, Qatari pole vaulter Seifeldin Abdelsalam scaled 5.45m to win his favourite event. Abdelsalam, a world finalist in Tokyo with a 5.75m clearance, was an Asian U20 champion two years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highlight of the final day was achieved by triple jumper Sharifa Davronova of Uzbekistan. The two-time world U20 champion, who is also the Asian Games and World University Games champion, cheered the crowd with her 14.24m jump to set a standard for the upcoming athletes to follow at the championships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another interesting contest, two of the top Indian javelin throwers, Anand Singh (80.57m) and Shivam Lohakare (77.70m), made it to the podium. While Singh improved his PB to clinch the gold, Lohakare was almost six and a half metres behind his best from last year to finish third. China\u2019s world U20 silver medallist Wang Xiaobo snatched the silver with a 79.41m throw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s unheralded Zhao Shiqi (13.38) and Zhang Zijun (13.41) set PBs to secure the top two spots in the 110m hurdles ahead of Qatar\u2019s world U20 finalist and Asian U20 champion Oumar Doudai Abakar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinese relay quartets won three of the four finals decided on the concluding day. India dominated the women\u2019s 4x400m in 3:33.62.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hosts China finished top of the medals tally at the just concluded inaugural Asian U23 Championships in Ordos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-14738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-athletics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t