Big stars arrive for Asian GP
[ATHLETICS] About 150 athletes from 23 Asian countries will fight it out for medals and money in the three-leg Asian Grand Prix, the firstleg of which will be held at the Supachalasai National Stadium on Tuesday.
The Indian cities of Guwahati and Pune will host the second and third legs on June 23 and June 27. Twenty-one gold medals are at stake in the Bangkok leg. The top three in the individual competitions will take home US$1,500 (Bt52,000), $800 and $500, while only the top two in the team events will claim $400 and $200 respectively. The largest contingent is from China. Other nations competing are India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Singapore. This year's Grand Prix will have several Doha Asian Games champions in women's events, such as the 100m sprint (Uzbekistan's Guzel Khubbieva), the 400m (Kazakh Olga Tereshkova), the triple jump (Chinese Xie Limei) and the shot put (Chinese Li Ling). Two former world youth champions from China, Xue Juan and Zhang Li, will take part in the javelin throw. Among the men's competitors, Asian Games triple-jump gold medallist Li Yanxi from China will be the centre of attraction, along with Fawzi Al-Shammari of Kuwait at 400m and two-time world championship bronze medallist Dai Tamesue of Japan in the 400m hurdles.
Preechachan Wiriyanupappong
The Nation
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