Is India’s domination of women’s relay at Asiad in danger?
The Hindu
A smart strategy to counter Chinese takeover of Asian quartermile rankings needed
The Chinese virtually taking over this year’s Asian women’s quartermile rankings — they now occupy seven of the top 10 rungs, including the top four — should be a big worry for Indians.
Heading the chart is 29-year-old Huizhen Yang, 2015 Asian 400m champion, who clocked 51.63s for the National Games gold in Xi’an last month. Behind her are 19-year-old Guojuan Liu (51.94s) and Chunyu Wang (52s), who was also fifth in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics, and Zenghuan Tong (52.17s). Never before has the Asian list looked so crowded with Chinese presence in the last 10 years.
India had five athletes in the Asian top 10 in 2019 (China had none then) and 2018 (China two) but has just two this year: the country’s fastest quartermiler this year Priya H. Mohan (52.77s) in fifth place and Dandi Jyothika (53.05) in ninth. 2020 has been pulled out from the comparative study as it was an inactive year.