MANILA, Sept 23 (AFP) - Kuwaiti track star Fawzi AlShammari won the men’s 200 meters for his second gold medal while Kazakh LyubovPerepelova sealed the sprint double at the Asianchampionships here Tuesday.
Sri Lanka’s Damayanthi Darsha, the record holder forboth the Asian championships and the Asian Games for thewomen’s 200m, pulled out with a hamstring injurysuffered during training on Monday.
It was a heartbreaking second injury for the SriLankans, who were already without the services ofSusanthika Jayasinghe, the fastest Asian woman in thedistance.
Perepelova, running with distinctive blond corn rowsin her hair, took full advantage after winning the 100msprint on Sunday.
Al Shammari, a flop at the Paris world championshipslast month, helped himself to a second gold in the men’s200m in 20.70secs after nailing the 400m crown onSunday.
The Kuwaiti was slow off the blocks, allowing SaudiArabia’s Hamed al-Bishi to take a clear lead at thehalfway mark.
``Al-Bishi and China’s Yang Yaozu started well, but inthe last 15 meters I found I had a little power left,’'said Al Shamari, who failed to get past the semifinalsin Paris.
Al-Bishi finished second in 20.73 while Yang was thirdin 20.82.
Perepelova took the women’s 200m gold in 23.11, edgingChen Lisha of China who took the silver in 23.39. Asecond Uzbek, Guzel Khubbieva, won the bronze in 23.63.
Chinese hurdler Huang Xiaoxiao set the stadium alightby setting a new meet record to win the women’s 400mhurdles in 55.66secs. Kazakhstan’s Natalya Torshina camesecond in 55.88 while Wassana Winatho of Thailand wasthird in 56.40.
Qatar’s Mobarak Sultan al-Nobi, the meet record holderin the men’s 400m hurdles, easily won in 49.19secs.
Yevgeniy Meleshenko of Kazakhstan won the silver in49.55, and Chen Tien-Wen of Chinese-Taipei the bronze in50.72.
Ha Mingming got China going earlier Tuesday by settinga new meet record on the way to winning the women’s 20kilometer walk with a time of 1hour, 31mins 47.0secs.
Compatriot Zou Ying was second in 1:32:07.0, whileMalaysian Yuan Yufang placed third in 1:32:25.0.