In addition to the Asia Cup in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, the Asian Sprint Championships took place in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
The winners of the Asian Games (and Asian Olympic distance Championships), Kenji Nener and Yuko Takahashi, were absent, meaning that new names would claim an Asian title to sign off their seasons.
In both the men’s and women’s events, the fate of the gold medals would come down to the late stages of the run.
Men’s race
Kyotaro Yoshikawa blitzed the 750m swim alongside his compatriot Mitsuho Mochizuki, putting the rest of the field on the back foot.
Genta Uchida and Ren Sato emerged on the feet of the leaders to put four Japanese men in the top-4 swim splits. Close behind – less than 10 seconds shy of the leaders – were two of the main threats for the gold medal, Ayan Beisenbayev and Jason Tai Long Ng.
Beisenbayev had finished 3rd at the Asian Games and won the Central Asian Championships (and Asia Cup) in Samarkand in the summer. Ng, meanwhile, had finished 5th at the Asian Games and 4th in Samarkand. A win seemed like it could have been on the cards, though, after he finished 3rd at the Asian U23 Championships in June and then logged a career-best World Cup finish of 7th in Weihai.
Yoshikawa and Mochizuki tried to detonate the early stages of the bike with their awesome bike strength. The experienced Sato promptly covered their moves and Beisenbayev and Ng soon also marked them.
Additional firepower soon arrived as Jumpei Furuya joined the pack to help set a furious tempo. In total, fifteen men gathered at the front of the race with Nanhe Wang of China and Aleksander Kurishov of Uzbekistan also present.
Given the pace, it proved impossible for anyone to sustain a meaningful break off the front. The race thus came down to the run.
Beisenbayev, Ng and Uchida took control early on while Sato battled to hang on to the leaders. Over the course of the 5km, the leaders moved clear and distanced Sato. Uchida remained nestled on the heels of Beisenbayev. Ng, though, tried to move away.
His effort was matched by Beisenbayev but a counter-move by the Kazakhstan athlete saw Uchida fall behind. As the finish line hovered ahead, Beisenbayev went again and this time broke clear decisively. With no response forthcoming, Beisenbayev took the win by 6 seconds.
Ng sealed the silver medal while Uchida crossed next to take the bronze.
Women’s race
Xinyu Lin of China had enjoyed a splendid run of form prior to her arrival in Saudi Arabia. A silver medal at the Asian Games precipitated a run of best ever World Cup results, including a 5th place in Chengdu and 4th place in Miyazaki. Typically, Lin’s bike strength has proven to be her point of difference at the world level.
In Al-Khobar, it was her swim that was a cut above the rest.
Lin was superb in the water, clocking 9:46 to take the lead. Only Sarika Nakayama of Japan and Xingying Yu (China) exited within 10 seconds of Lin; a swift T1 then added a couple of seconds to Lin’s advantage.
Although she pushed the opening kilometres on the bike, Lin was soon joined by a chase pack containing Nakayama, Minori Ikeno and Yu. Further behind, a larger group came together and put the leaders in their sights.
Miyu Sakai and Ekaterina Shabalina headed up the main pack while the 2023 Asian Junior champion, Manami Hayashi, also rode confidently in the group.
In total, ten women made the larger pack, including the evergreen Juri Ide, an athlete over 20 years older than Hayashi. Over the 20km, the chasers were able to overpower the lead quartet and fused the groups together. The race thus came down to the run, just as it had in the men’s race.
Unlike the men’s event, though, there would be no grandstand finish. Shabalina seized control of the run early on and built a lead that she would not squander. After winning the European Cup in Wels in the summer and the Asia Cup in Cholton-Apa in September, the athlete from Kazakhstan had plenty of experience of closing out races to call upon.
Over the 5km, she would come under no real difficulty and won the race by 26 seconds. Lin was the best of the rest to add another silver medal. After her recent form, a win at the Asian Championships will likely come sooner or later, as will a first World Cup medal. For now, though, she had to settle in behind Shabalina’s speed.
Bailee Brown then produced a lightning 5km to seal the bronze medal. In doing so she joined her compatriot Ng as a medallist and made Hong Kong the second country (after Kazakhstan) to come away with two medals in Saudi Arabia.
You can view the full results here.
