Youth Olympic Qualifiers – Ajay made India proud in 1500m Bangkok, 21 May 2014: Assam boy Ajay Kumar Saroj made his country proud by winning the 1,500m in 3:56.47 that was less than 1 second slower than the national youth record of 3:55.54 held by Delhi’s Ravinder since 2005. Korean Lee Sangmin (4:00.03) and Saudi Arabia’s Kaabi Ali Mohammed (4:04.47) finished in next two places. Kerala hurdler Maymon Poulose came second in 110m hurdles with a personal best and new national youth best of 13.80 secs. The above event was won by Japanese Kanai Nao in 13.77s while local lad Munaek Parinya was third at 13.84s. The afternoon session starts with a third place by javelin thrower Pushpa Jakhar. She hurled the spear to 48.73m. Ge Lijuan of China (49.91m) and Warwara Nazarova (Kazakhstan, 49.33m) have finished above Pushpa in this event. Kerala high jumper Libia Shaji, earlier placed third now re-ranked to fifth after a count-back as she along with three others cleared an identical 1.64m. Lee Ching-Ching from Chinese Taipei scaled 1.74m for the podium finish. In other events Tamil Nadu discus thrower S. Mithravarun finished 4th with 54.20m. Asian Youth Games champion Cheng Youlong of China was the top boy there with a stupendous 63.66m , followed by country-mate Zhang Xiangnan (62.82m) and Japan’s Ando Yume (59.48m). Another TN athlete Rochelle Macfarlane finished 7th in girls’ triple jump (12.39m) wherein Malaysia’s Indian-origin Kirthana Ramasamy excelled with 13.06m. Another seventh place came in boys’ 2000m steeplechase by Harbaksh Singh (6:34.88). Alamrani Bader Ali of Saudi Arabia won the event in 6:03.70. Japan’s Oshima Kenta (10.56s) and China’s Liang Xiaojing (11.67) have become fastest boy and girl of the YOG Asian Area Qualifying competition respectively.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 11:13:18 +0000