The two Sri Lankan athletes Samantha Pushpakumara and Nilani Ratnayake could not make a mark at the Asian Cross-Country Championship which concluded a short while ago today in Guiyang, China.
Competing in the Senior Men’s 1 km event Samantha Pushpakumara was placed 19th clocking a time of 41:55 out of the 24 contestants. Peng Jianhua of China won the first place in the competition clocking 38:22 while Japanese Nishiyama Kazuya and Imanishi Siiunsuke were placed second and third respectively.
In the women’s 8km competition Nilani Ratnayake was placed 12th with a time of 30:58 out of 15 contestants. Chinese Li Den won Gold in the Senior Women’s event while Abe Yukri of Japan and Sanjivani Jadhav of India won the Silver and the Bronze medals respectively in the competition.
Japan push host China to Silver
Japan dominated the 14th Asian Cross Country Championships winning all four team Gold medals to hold the hosts China back to Silver, in every race, as they managed to secure Gold in Senior Men’s/Women’s and also in the Junior Men’s/Women’s competitions.
Japan’s only individual Gold came in the Junior Women’s race, one of its usual areas of strength. Yuna Wada led a Japanese sweep of the top four positions to win the 6 Km race in 20:43 with scoring teammates Ririka Hironaka and Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu just behind.
Suolang Cairen of China wins Junior men’s 8k cross country race
Chinese athletes won individual Gold in the other three races. Dan Li, Cairen Suolong and Jianhua Peng all showed better closing speeds to beat their Japanese rivals by 3.4 seconds. Li won the Senior Women’s 8 km by 3 seconds over Japan’s Yukari Abe, leading China to its closest call on a team Gold as it took Silver at 14 points to Japan’s 12. Suolong out ran Yuhi Nakaya, 2018 Japanese junior national champion and star runner at 2017 National High School Ekiden champ Saku Chosei H.S., by 4 seconds to win the Junior Men’s 8 km, where Japanese men finished 2nd through 4th to take the team Gold. Peng duplicated Suolong’s performance, beating Japan’s Kazuya Nishiyama by 4 seconds for the win. Again, Japanese men went 2-4 to win the team Gold.
