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Sunil Abeywardena reporting from Thailand

BANGKOK - Monday.

China grabbed the first gold medal on the opening day of the tenth Asian Junior Track and Field athletic meet which began at the Thamasha University Stadium in Bangkok yesterday.

Zhang Wensiw won the women's hammer throw event with a record breaking performance of 66.10 metres while erasing the previous mark set by another Chinese woman Yang Ping at the 2001 championships in Brunei. In fact China are fielding a 34-member contingent for this meet and are expected to dominate the track and field events.

China came on top of the medals tally at the previous meet with a total of 19 gold medals, 10 silver medals and three bronze medals. Kazakhastan were placed second with five gold medals followed by Japan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia who won four gold medals each. Sri Lanka managed to win only a solitary bronze medal in Brunei where their 4 X 400 metres relay team were placed third.

However the hosts Thailand has the honour of fielding the largest contingent for the meet with a total of 65 athletes including 22 boys and 43 girls. Japan are also set to make their presence felt at this meet with a contingent of 45 athletes in their squad. The Koreans however are fielding a comparatively small contingent of seventeen members and Qatar will have ten members in their squad.

The 30 member Sri Lankan contingent who arrived in Bangkok on Saturday evening are in a good frame of mind and are residing at the Thamasha University hostel. They had their first training session on Sunday and their only concern is the cold weather conditions which they are now experiencing in Bangkok.

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