Guangzhou: Athletes from West Asia fared much better than their Eastern opponents on the third day of the track and field events at the Aoti Stadium in the 16th Asian Games Tuesday.
Runners from Bahrain picked up two gold, while athletes from Saudi Arabia and Qatar stole a part of the limelight with a gold medal each. To their credit, the women did a commendable job for hosts China as they visited the top of the podium in the 20km walk and a fine one-two in the discus throw.
Heptathlon
Uzbekistan's Yuliya Tarasova took the women's gold in the gruelling heptathlon, while South Korea picked up the eighth and last gold on offer yesterday when Soonok Jung leapt a distance of 6.53 metres in the women's long jump.
Bahrain's first gold of the evening came from Maryam Yousuf Jamal after she ran in a time of 4 minutes, 08.22 seconds in the 1,500 metre final leaving Vietnam's Thanh Hang Truong in second and teammate Mimi Belete Gebregeiorges in third.
The men's steeplechase honours also went to Bahrain when Tareq Mubarak Tareq ran a slow time of 8 minutes, 25.89 seconds but still finished clear of Qatar's Thamer Kamel Ali and Saudi Arabia's Ali Ahmad Al Ameri to complete a Gulf clean sweep in the event.
In the women's long jump held earlier in the day, Jung's leap of 6.53 metres, just three centimetres clear of Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan was enough to give her the gold.
In the gruelling heptathlon it was Uzbek girl Tarasova showing better resilience, taking the gold.
