Kazakhstani athlete Maxim Balabin won bronze in the pole vault at the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in China. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Balabin cleared 5.05 meters on his first attempt, a personal best, but finished 40 cm behind winner Selfeldin Abdelsalam of Qatar.
Alina Chistyakova leads after four events of the heptathlon. In the 100 meters, the Karaganda native set a personal best of 14.05 (previous 14.09), and in the high jump she cleared 1.72 meters. With 1850 points, Chistyakova was 10 points ahead of Ugiloy Norboeva of Uzbekistan.
After the shot put, both were overtaken by Chinese athlete Xinghu Hu (13.55). Norboeva threw 12.14, Chistyakova 11.62, another personal best.
Running 200 meters in 25.09 (second fastest among participants), Chistyakova returned to first place with 3365 points. Tomorrow the heptathlon continues with three more events: long jump, javelin throw, and 800 meters.
Maria Shuvalova missed bronze by just 0.4 seconds in the 400-meter final, finishing in 53.14. Anna Shumilo placed sixth in 54.83.
In the 400-meter hurdles final, Yekaterina Koloda finished fifth (59.98) and Anastasia Tsvirkunova sixth (1:00.16).
The Asian U23 Athletics Championships are being held for the first time in this age category. The nearest reserve of national teams competes in 45 events. Kazakhstan sent 21 athletes to Ordos, China: 17 women and 4 men. Earlier, Anastasia Rypakova won silver in the long jump.
After three competition days, the hosts lead the medal table confidently.