Southeast Asia’s strong athletics meet continued at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou on Tuesday night (3 October) at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium as Thailand and Malaysia both celebrated women’s 4x100m relay medals.
In a race dominated by hosts People’s Republic of China, who were roared on by the home crowd, Thailand proved to be a good match for the rest of the field, coming home strongly to finish in 44.32 ahead of Bahrain, who could count on 200m bronze medallist Edidiong Ofonime in their team.
Behind Bahrain, Malaysia went about putting together a strong race, setting a new national record 45.01. And when the Bahrainis were disqualified for passing the baton outside the changeover zone, Malaysia had more than just a national record to show for their efforts as they were promoted to bronze.
China also claimed men’s 4x100m relay gold in a tight race that saw all eight teams finish within just 1.1 seconds of each other. Puripol Boonson, who withdrew mid-way through his 200m semi-final to focus on this race, was unable to anchor Thailand to a medal as they fell just short, finishing fourth in 38.81 behind Japan in silver and Republic of Korea in third.
Lalu Muhammad Zohri ran the second leg for the fifth-placed Indonesian team, who finished in 39.25; both Thailand and Indonesia set new national records.
Singapore finished seventh while Malaysia were disqualified for a lane infringement.
