Three nations won the gold medals on the final days of the 2024 Asian Orienteering Championships, which took place in the last week of the old year.
Thailand hosted the championships, which were run in and around Chiang Mai in the northern part of the country.
Both the middle distance and the relay took place in the same, relatively open terrain, which offered a varied curve pattern: towards the north there were many contour details, re-entrants and gullies, while in the southern end it was more flat and fast-raced.
In the middle distance, Nazyrova Assem secured the first victory for Kazakhstan by winning the women’s class with a 1:24 minute lead over Natsuki Yamagishi (JPN) with Ying Yau Chu (HKG) a further 28 seconds behind in third place.
In the men’s class, Japanese dominance was total as Japanese athletes took the top 5 places. Itsuki Ito won a crushing victory with a margin of 2:42 minutes ahead of Hiroki Komaki. Their compatriot Yuichi Honjo took third place.
The Japanese athletes also delivered impressive results at the middle distances in the junior and youth championships, which were run simultaneously. Here, Japan won in the W20, W18, M20, M18 and M16. China won the W16 class.
The individual winners, as regional champions, are guaranteed a starting spot at the upcoming world championships in the current discipline. This means that Nazyrova Assem and Itsuki Ito are guaranteed the opportunity to compete at this summer’s World Orienteering Championships in Finland. Yuichi Honjo and Ying Yau Chu are thus assured of a starting place at next year’s sprint World Orienteering Championships in Italy.
In the relay on the final day of the championships, Hong Kong China’s women’s team with Cho Yu Lam, Brenda Hau Wah Chan and Ying Yau Chu won after a strong finish, where the team passed the silver winners from Kazakhstan on the last leg. Japan 2 ran with the bronze medals.
The Japanese men were again strong in the terrain, where they had also done well in the middle distance. The three medalists Yuichi Honjo, Hiroki Komaki, Itsuki Ito were more than five minutes faster than their closest competitors – another Japanese team – while Kazakhstan was just over eight minutes behind in second place. Hong Kong China won bronze in the men’s relay.
The medal pattern from the middle distance was also repeated in the junior and youth classes, with Japan winning everything except W16, where China was strongest again.
Photos and video streams are available at Thailand Orienteering Federation on Facebook
Front page photo: Thailand Orienteering Federation