The four-day 21st Asian U20 Athletics Championships came to an end on April 27 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This Asian Youth Championships, for the audience and media people who can't be there in person, there are many things to complain about.
The official website is a fictitious website, all kinds of information are confusing, there is no text prompt for live broadcast, and even the official results can not be obtained until the end of the game on the same day.
A few days after the end of the competition, there are still a number of missing events, such as the men's 400m final, which has not been corrected (the women's 400m has been released twice, the men's 400m has been omitted), and the women's 100m, men's 100m semi-finals and women's 5000m have not been announced.
But the only thing that can't be complained about is the performance of these young players, especially the performance of Chinese sprinting, and a number of national records in the age group have been rewritten, which has also attracted the attention of the official website of the World Athletics Federation.
以《中国短跑运动员在亚洲U20 锦标赛中表现出色》(Chinese sprinters excel at Asian U20 Championships)为题，刊出专文介绍这次亚青赛。
This is also a modest Chinese track and field, which made its fourth appearance on the World Athletics Federation website in April, after the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, as well as the Diamond League in Xiamen and the Yangtze River Delta.
In the middle-distance running event, with only two runners fielded, China's Li Yaxuan won two gold medals in the 3,000m and 5,000m, while Liu Yan won a bronze medal in the women's 1,500m.
The Chinese delegation won a total of 15 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze medals with a total of 27 medals, ranking first in the medal table, while the Japanese team ranked second with a total of 21 medals with 8 gold, 5 silver and 8 bronze, and the Indian team ranked third with 7 gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze medals with a total of 29 medals.
Before the Asian Championships, Zeng Keli didn't seem to be so famous, although the previous indoor 60m had run the first time in Asia this season's U20 Asia by 6.62 seconds, which can also rank second in China this year.
But because he only started to participate in the national competition this year, the PB of the 100m was still 10.43 seconds in the Guangxi Youth Championships last year.
In the men's 200m final at the Asian Junior (U18) Athletics Championships held this time last year, he won a silver medal in 21.19 seconds (+0.7). This Asian Youth Championships gave the 17-year-old Guangxi teenager the opportunity to fully show his strength in the 100 meters.
In the men's 100m preliminaries, he easily broke through PB in 10.38 seconds (-1.6), ranking first in the preliminaries and advancing to the semifinals. In the semi-finals, he set a new national junior (U20) men's 100m record with a time of 10.15 seconds (+1.7), reaching the international elite standard.
The original record was 10.18 for He Yuhong in 2020. At the same time, it also broke the Asian Youth Championships record of 10.26 seconds set by mainland star Li Tao at the Asian Youth Championships in Jakarta in 1986, and the PB increased by 0.23 seconds in one day.
The fiery form continued into the final, and the championship was naturally not left behind, Tsang Keli won the championship by a huge advantage of 10.19 seconds (+0.4), and the second and third places were won by Hong Kong's Chen Yile and Guo Junting with a time of 10.41 seconds (+0.4) and 10.46 seconds (+0.4), and the Chinese players took the top three.
Chen Yujie, who is only 15 years old, has long been famous, and it is difficult to find opponents at the same age.
At last year's U15 World Student Games in Brazil, he won two gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters, and his time of 11.56 seconds also tied the meeting record. After that, in the first Youth Association, the score improved to 11.43 seconds.
Earlier this year, she broke the Asian U18 women's 60m record with a time of 7.29 seconds and 7.27 seconds.
This result is second only to Liang Xiaojing in the U20 ranking with 7.23 seconds, ranking second in Asian history, and I believe that this record is likely to be hers next year. 7.27 seconds is also in the top 10 in the history of the world's U18s.
This time I came to Dubai, aiming for the championship. The 11.76 seconds (-0.5m) in the preliminaries advanced to the final, and the final 11.32 seconds (+0.7) broke the Asian Youth Championship record and the Asian U18 record, and the best Asian result this season, the world U18 can also rank third.
Vietnam's Tran Thi also had a good performance, finishing second with 11.40 seconds (+0.7), while Japan's Misaki Morimoto won bronze in 11.79 seconds (+0.7).
The woman has Chen Yujie, and the most popular young player on the men's side must be Elixir Wumaier, a young man from Xinjiang who we have also written about before.
His goal at the Asian Youth Championships this time is not just to win the championship, nor is it a youth record, but also to aim for a national record of 45.14 seconds in the 400m.
In the preliminaries, 47.43 seconds easily won the group to advance to the finals, and another Chinese player, Li Yiqing, played equally well, running a PB of 46.29 seconds, ranking first in the preliminaries and advancing to the finals.
In the final, Elisier's opponent was himself, probably too much to want this record, and the run was a little tight, and the time of 45.53 seconds was not satisfactory to him, but he still set a new national youth (U20) record, breaking the original national youth (U20) record of 45.66 seconds set by the famous Guo Zhongze in 2015, and can rank 4th in Chinese history. No. 3 in Asia this season, No. 3 in the world U20 this season, and No. 9 in Asian U20 history.
Li Yiqing, who had a good performance in the preliminaries, finished second in 46.61 seconds, while India's Aman Choudhary was third in 47.53 seconds.
Although only 18 years old, Sichuan player Liu Yinglan's qualifications are much deeper than the above, not only participated in the Western Security Games, but also won the mixed 4x400m relay gold medal.
In the 200m, she ran 24.13 seconds (0.3+) to advance to the final, where she won the final with a time of 22.94 seconds (+2.2).
大幅领先越南选手Thi Nhi Yen TRAN的23.48秒(+2.2)，泰国选手集拉巴·卡农达( KHANONTA Jirapat)以24.34秒(+2.2)收获铜牌。
The men's and women's 4x400m mixed relay team, consisting of Elisil Wumaier, Wang Yalun, Li Yiqing and Liu Yinglan, won the championship with a time of 03:22.46 and set a new Asian Youth Championship record.
Hebei player Li Yaxuan, who finished fourth in the women's 10,000 meters at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, also suffered an injury and experienced a long period of recovery.
She and Liu Yan are the only two middle-distance runners in the Asian Youth Championships, according to Coach Xu Zhaohua, Li Yaxuan has just begun to recover, and the 3000m was originally planned to run 9:15-9:20.
After the start of the race, he used the tactics of following and running, and did not accelerate away from the Japanese until there were more than 1,000 meters left in the race, and finally won the championship in 9:12.79.
A big lead over Japan's Rumi Okumoto (9:25.19), who finished second, and another Japanese player, Nozomi Kondo (9:38.91), was third.
For this result, Director Xu is very satisfied with Li Yaxuan's performance, after all, the recovery time from the injury is not long.
The women's 5000m had a small number of entrants, only 7 people, and there were no Japanese athletes, so the overall level was not high, and Li Yaxuan did not encounter any challenge at all, and finally won the championship easily in 16:34.82, with India's Ekta Dey (16:49.70) and Sunita Devi (16:52.54) in second and third respectively.
Li Yaxuan will make some adjustments before competing in the National Athletics Grand Prix, and she and her coach hope to have the opportunity to participate in this year's World Junior Athletics Championships.
In the men's 800m final, Akira Ochiai's performance was impressive, and in this type of championship, the Japanese also took the lead in this type of competition, and in this race he ran from the front from the start to the finish line, winning 1:48.01.
卡塔尔选手Hatim AIT OULGHAZI(1:48.39)屈居亚军,另一位日本选手立迫大徳(1:49.73)排名第三。
In the women's 800m final, Japan's Arari Nishida won the championship in 2:06.55, followed by India's Laxita SANDILEA (2:07.10) and another Japanese player, Sari Kani (2:07.56), who was third. China's Liu Yan finished sixth with a 2:15.39 record.
男子1500米没有日本选手,夺冠的是卡塔尔人Hatim AIT OULGHAZI,成绩是3:50.76,印度选手PRIYANSHU(3:50.85)排名第二,伊拉克选手Mustafa MOHSIN以3:51.76收获季军。
In the women's 1500m final, the Japanese popular Zhu Yingli attracted attention because of her participation, and finally she won the championship with her better sprinting ability in 4:21.41, India's Laxita SANDILEA (4:25.63) ranked second, and Liu Yan won the precious bronze medal with a time of 4:30.58.
In the men's 3000 meters, Japan's Yota Masuko flew solo all the way, leading the other players by a large margin, winning the championship in 8:16.06, with a huge advantage. Two Indian players, Gaurav BHOSALE (8:31.20) and Vikas KUMAR (8:33.00), were second and third.
Chinese Taipei's Hsu Li-hong finished fourth with 8:35.40, breaking the PB by 9 seconds.
The men's 3,000m steeplechase was also undercrowded, with only five finishers finishing, and the results were not satisfactory. India's Ranvir KUMAR was first with 9:22.67, Iraq's Mustafa MOHSIN (9:28.84) was second and Saudi Arabia's Bader Fouad Ahmed ALGHAMDI (9:36.78) was third.
The women's 3,000m hurdles were the same as the men's, with only five finishers, making the results even worse. India's Ekta PRADEEP (10:31.95) was in first place, while Uzbekistan's two players, Dilshoda USMANOVA (10:41.37) and Mashkura SOYBOVA (11:31.35), were second and third.
In the men's 5000m, there are two Japanese athletes from Aoyama Gakuin University, with PB high of 13:28 and 13:34.
After the start, they did not have the same strategy as Yota Masuko, but rather a more conservative strategy, with the Indians running with them until the final lap, when Sota Orita, who had the best PB time, crossed the line first in 14:08.71, with India's Vinod SINGH (14:09.44) in second and Shoda Iida (14:09.63) taking bronze.
The young generation of Chinese sprinters has risen rapidly, and a group of Mesozoic athletes such as Liu Dezhu and He Jie in the middle and long events have pushed their respective events to new heights.
For the time being, the young players in the middle and long events do not have such dazzling results as sprinting, and I hope that in the future, we can give more opportunities for young players after 05 to experience competitions.
No one is forever young, but there are always people who are young. The next 2026 Asian Youth Championships will be held in Hong Kong, China.