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by Chris Dhambarage

Asia's super power Japan will be fielding one of the largest contingents at the 14th Asian Athletic Championships which gets underway at the Sugathadasa Stadium today. The Japanese team comprise of 30 men, 26 women and a total 16 officials and will be competing in almost every event of the meet. Murao Shinetsu one of the senior officials of the team said that they are confident of winning few medals which will be a good morale booster ahead of the Asian Games in South Korea.

Their most outstanding athlete is no doubt Morofushi Koji who will be participating in the men's hammer throw event schedule for Saturday. Twenty eight year old Koji won the silver medal at the previous World Championships in Edmonton Canada and has a personal best of 83.47 metres.

In fact at the last Asian championships held in Jakarta, Indonesia they won four gold medals, eight silver medals and five bronze medals.Murao Shinetsu said that the team is fresh after competing in the Japanese national championships at home and are determined to put up another impressive performance. In the men's sprint events they will be banking on Kanno Yuta, Tsuchie Hiroyasu, Itoh Tatsuya and Omae Yusuke. In the men's middle distance events they will have the services of Mukai Yukihiri, Matsumoto Suguru, Suzuki Hisato, Mori Akinori and Kobayashi Tetsuya.

In the men's long distance events Japan will be depending on Ohmori Terukazu and Murayama Tatsuya. In addition Sakurai Kenichi and Naito Masato will compete in the men's 110 metres hurdles, Kawamura Hideaki and Chiba Yoshihiro in the 400 metres hurdles.

The other competitors in the men's category are Yoshizawa Eiichi (20 km walking race), Fujinohara Toshihto (20 km walking race), Uchida Takahiro (high jump), Sawano Daichi (paul vault), Morinaga Masaki (long jump), Habu Satoru (long jump), Ishikawa Kazuyoshi (javelin), Watanabe Masashi (javelin), Sakakibara Hidehiro (shot putt), Fujiwara Jun (decathlon), Doi Hiroaki (hammer throw), Shiraiwa Shiro (javelin) and Ishizawa Masatoshi (decathlon).

The Japanese women's team includes Suzuki Ayumi (100 metres), Matsumoto Mariko (100 meters), Nobuoka Sakie (200 metres), Kusanagie Eriko (200 metres), Yoshida Makiko (400 metres), Kida Mayu (400 metres), Matsushima Tomoko (800 metres), Sugimori Miho (800 metres), Kawashima Akiko (1500 metres), Nasukawa Mizuho (1500 metres), Kanazwa Yvonne (100 metres hurdles), Morimoto Akiko (100 metres hurdles), Eguchi Sachiko (400 metres hurdles), Tadamasa Ryoko (20 metres walk), Ota Yoko (high jump), Imai Miki (high jump), Kondo Takayo (paul vault), Ono Masumi (paul vault), Ikeda Kumiko (long jump), Yoshida Fumiyo (javelin), Ichioka Sumi (shot putt), Ito Aika (decathlon), Yamamoto Harumi (javelin), Sato Sayoko (heptathlon) and Hirado Akiko (heptathlon).

Qatar will be fielding one of the strongest teams at the 14th Asian Athletic championships which begins at the Sugathadasa Stadium today. The manager of the Qatar team Mohamed Sulaiman said that their contingent comprise of 54 and will be competing in every event. In fact at the previous meet held in Jakarta, Indonesia the Qatar team put up a splendid performance winning gold medals in the men's 400 metres, 1500 metres, 5000 metres and in the 10,000 metres. Sulaiman added that his athletes are in good form and are certain to cause a major threat to the rest of the competitors.

Sulaiman was optimistic about the total number of medals they would win but hoped that every member of the team would provide their best in achieving their goal.

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