CHENG SHATTERS ASIAN JAVELIN THROW RECORD WITH

91.36M EFFORT IN TAIPEI CITY

Chao-Tsun Cheng shattered the Asian record in the javelin throw at the World

University Games in Taipei City on Saturday (26).

Competing before an energised home crowd at Taipei Stadium, the 23-year-old

from Chinese Taipei threw 91.36m in the final round to break the previous Asian

record of 89.15m set by Zhao Qing-gang of China at the 2014 Asian Games in

Incheon.

In a competition of remarkable quality, Cheng defeated Germany's Andreas

Hofmann who reached 91.07m with the competition's final dramatic effort.

“Before the competition, I was discussing it with Coach Anders [Borgstrom] and

saying I wanted to get past 90 metres and to become Asia’s first to do it,” Cheng said.

"I wanted to be a javelin legend and to leave an incredible score on home soil."

With their performances, Cheng and Hoffman rose to positions 12 and 14

respectively on the all-time performer list and became the 17th and 18th members of

the event's still exclusive 90-metre club.

Cheng, who entered the competition with an 86.92m lifetime best set last April,

took the early lead with an opening round effort of 83.91m. But Hofmann, who

opened with an 83.00m throw, took full command in round three when he reached

85.59m, improving in every subsequent round. He threw 85.97m in the fourth, and a

near-PB 88.33m in the fifth.

Meanwhile, Cheng improved marginally in the fourth round with an 84.37m

effort before fouling on his fifth throw. His winning 91.36m blast followed.

That effort inspired Hoffman, a finalist at the last two World Championships,

who responded with a lifetime best of his own, but coming up just a little short with

his 91.07m bomb. It was only the second time in history that a throw landing beyond

91 metres would fall short of victory. The first was Finn Aki Parviainen's 91.31m
throw at the 2001 World Championships when he claimed silver behind Jan Zelezny.
 Cheng's teammate Shih-Feng Huang, the world youth champion in 2009 and

2015 Asian champion, broke his previous best by nearly three metres to 86.64m to

finish third.

GAMES' HAMMER THROW RECORD FOR KOPRON

Malwina Kopron of Poland, who took World Championships bronze in London

19 days ago, set a new World University Games with her 76.85m throw, a personal

best. Her effort eclipsed the previous Games mark of 75.83m set by Germany's Betty

Heidler in 2009, and moved to her to second on the 2017 list behind world champion

Anita Wlodarczyk.

Hanna Malyshchyk of Belarus was second with 74.93m with Kopron's teammate

Joanna Fiodorow third at 71.33m. The Pole was sixth in London earlier this month

and Malyshchyk 10th.

Elsewhere, London finalist Juander Santos of the Dominican Republic won the

400m hurdles in 48.65 over Chieh Chen of Taipei, who equalled his 49.05 personal

best. Abdelmalik Lahoulou of Algeria was third in 49.30.

Nadine Visser of The Netherlands, who finished seventh in London in both the

heptathlon and the 100m hurdles, won the latter here in 12.98 (-1.3 m/s).

Battling hefty winds, Jeffrey John of France and Italy's Irene Siragusa won the

200m titles. Siragusa clocked a 22.96 (-1.4 m/s) personal best while John clocked

20.93 (-3.8 m/s).

Verena Preiner of Austria leads the heptathlon after day one with 3586 points,

141 ahead of Australia's Alysha Jane Burnett, who's tallied 3445.

Bob Ramsak and organisers for the IAAF

 YANG AND FAJDEK MAKE HISTORY AT WORLD UNIVERSITY
GAMES IN TAIPEI

World champion Pawel Fajdek won a historic fourth consecutive hammer title at

the World University Games in Taipei City, but the star of the athletics programme so

far was Yang Chun-Han of host nation Chinese Taipei.

Yang wasn’t considered to be one of the pre-event favourites for the 100m. Even

throughout the rounds, the 20-year-old didn’t stand out, finishing second in his heat

and second in his quarter-final. He won his semifinal in a national record of 10.20, but

South Africa’s Thando Roto was the fastest in that round, clocking 10.18.

Roto, who earlier this year clocked a PB of 9.95, and USA’s Cameron Burrell,

the fastest in the field with a 9.93 PB from earlier this year, started as the favourites in

the final. Yang, meanwhile, was just the seventh fastest based on PBs and season’s

bests.

But Yang, drawn in lane five, kept his composure as Roto in lane four got off to

the best start and held the lead at half way. Burrell in the outside lane was also in

contention, but Yang came through in the final few metres to take the victory in 10.22

(-0.9m/s), much to the delight of the home crowd. Roto was second in 10.24 with

Burrell a further 0.03 in arrears.

Yang became the first man from Chinese Taipei to win an athletics gold medal at

the World University Games. Their only other athletics gold in the history of the event

came in the women’s 200m in 1991.

FAJDEK LEADS POLISH GOLD RUSH

Just two weeks have passed since Pawel Fajdek won his third world hammer

title, but the Pole’s appearance in Taipei marked his third competition since the World

Championships.

After a foul in the opening round and a safe effort of 72.57m in the second,

Fajdek sent his hammer out to 79.16m in round three, a mark which no other athlete
came within a metre of. The 28-year-old duly secured his fourth consecutive World
University Games hammer title, having won in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

Two of Fajdek’s teammates have also won gold medals, putting Poland at the top

of the medals table after the third of six days of action.

Marcelina Witek was down in fifth place after four rounds of the women’s

javelin, but she launched a lifetime best of 63.31m in the penultimate round to take

the lead. Early leader Marina Saito of Japan responded with 62.37m in the final

round, but it wasn’t quite enough to regain the lead and she had to settle for silver

behind Witek.

Malgorzata Holub won Poland’s other gold medal, clocking 51.76 to win the

400m by 0.07 from South Africa’s Justine Palframan.

WENDRICH WINS ON COUNTBACK

Just 24 hours after Yang had won a historic gold medal for the host nation, it

looked as though high jumper Hsiang Chun-Hsien was about to double Chinese

Taipei’s gold medal tally. He cleared 2.26m and shared the lead, having not recorded

any fouls up to that height.

But he brought the bar down three times at the next height, 2.29m, while

Germany’s Falk Wendrich and Italy’s Marco Fassinotti both went clear on their third

try, marking a PB for Wendrich. Both men were unsuccessful at the next height,

meaning Wendrich won the title on countback.

In the horizontal jumps, Azerbaijan’s Nazim Babayev won the men’s triple jump

with 17.01m, while Romania’s Alina Rotaru leaped 6.65m to take the women’s long

jump title.

Dominican Republic’s 2012 Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos clocked a

season’s best of 45.24 to win the 400m. Little more than 90 minutes earlier, his

younger brother Juander won his 400m hurdles semifinal in 49.31, the fastest time of

the round.

Elsewhere, Portugal’s Francisco Belo won the men’s shot put with 20.86m and

Jamaica’s Shashalee Forbes took the women’s 100m gold medal in 11.18.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF