Asian Indoor Athletics Championships:
Fasihi retains women’s 60m crown
The second day of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tehran saw Iranian girl Farzaneh Fasihi defend her 60m title in style.
Fasihi equaled the championship record of 7.20 seconds to cross the finish line ahead of Kazakhstan’s Safronova Olga, who clocked 7.35 seconds for the silver, while Thai sprinter Supanich Poolkerd stood third on 7.38 seconds.
Sunday’s final performance also saw Fasihi better the national record by 0.03 seconds.
This was a fourth Asian indoor medal for the 31-year-old Iranian, who was part of the 4×400m silver-winning team in 2016 before grabbing the 60m bronze in Tehran two years later.
Fasihi’s fellow-Iranian Hamideh Esmaeilnejad was left empty-handed after the 60m final, finishing fifth.
Elsewhere in the Aftab-e Enghelab Sports Complex, Iranians Nazanin Eidian and Kazhan Rostami won the silver and bronze medals of the women’s 400m event.
Eidian registered 55.33 seconds to finish second to Japan’s Nanako Matsumoto (55.14 seconds) with Rostami crossing the line in 55.35 seconds.
Elham Hashemi had opened the account for the Iranian women on Saturday, winning the shot put bronze with a best throw 14.27m.
China’s Sun Yue (17.65m) and Nasriddinova Malika (15.42m) of Uzbekistan claimed the gold and silver of the contest.
In the men’s competitions, meanwhile, Ali Amirian and Mahdi Saberi added a couple of bronze medals to Iran’s medal haul.
Amirian stood behind Kirgizstan’s Nursultan Keneshbekov and Abdirahman Saeed Hassan of Qatar in the 1500m contest, while a high throw of 18.74m sealed the third podium for Saberi in the shot put event.