Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba dominated the third day of the track & field program at the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia, winning in a Games record of 47.66.
True, it wasn’t close to his stunning 46.98 of earlier this season – no. 2 all-time – but it’s another chapter in an amazing season: eight finals, eight wins and eight times at 47.90 or better. And maybe more?
For comparison, Edwin Moses’s best sub-48 seasons came in 1983 (7 races) and 1981 (6); Bershawn Jackson had seven sub-48 marks in 2005 and six in 2010. The all-time seasonal mark might be Kevin Young in his world-record season of 1992, where he ran under 48 seconds nine different times. Could Samba equal that at the Continental Cup (if he runs) in Ostrava?
Behind Samba in Jakarta were Dharun Ayyasamy (IND), who ran a lifetime best of 48.96 for silver and Japan’s Takatoshi Abe claimed third in 49.12.
Also of note on Monday was India’s Commonwealth Games winner Neeraj Chopra, who moved up to sixth on the year list with a personal best and national record of 88.06 m (288-11). He’s still just 20. Combined with Tajinderpal Singh Toor’s win in the men’s Shot and Manjit Singh’s win in the men’s 800 m, it’s the first time India has won three T&F golds in the Asian Games since 1982!
China is also having a good meet. Shiying Liu won the women’s Javelin with at 66.09 m (216-10) and Wenjun Xie won the 110 m Hurdles in 13.34, defending his 2014 win in the event and continuing China’s streak in the event to nine straight Asian Games!
China continues to run away with the overall medal count at 206 (97-64-45), with Japan second (142: 43-38-61) and Korea third (118: 32-40-46). The Games will finish on Sunday.
