Hosts land first athletics gold at the FISU World University Games

The start of the athletics competition at the Shuangliu Sports Centre Stadium saw China take both gold medals on Day 4 of the 31st FISU World University Games. China took 10 of the golds on offer today to take their tally up to 27 since the start of the games.

Shot Put was the first event to reach its conclusion, where Jiayuan Song launched a throw of 18.56m to secure the top spot in the event. The Women’s 10,000m was the other final on the programme, which went the way of Yuyu Xia in a race that was a war of attrition in the heat.

China enjoyed further success winning team gold in Women’s Table Tennis, the Women’s Team 25m Pistol Shooting, as well as individual glory for Jia Chen in the Women’s 1m Springboard Diving, Kai Hu in the Men’s 10m Pistol Shooting plus a pair of Taekwondo golds courtesy of Kai Zhang in the Men’s 80kg and Jie Song in the Women’s 67kg classes.

Day 4 was also the opening day in the pool, and the hosts again picked up gold with the Women’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay. Poland landed the Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay with Matteo Lamberti of Italy winning the Men’s 400m Freestyle.

The fourth and final gold awarded in the pool went to Ichika Kajimoto, who picked up gold for Japan in the Women’s 400m Medley. Japan also won gold in the Men’s and Women’s team Judo events.

Shooting has been a happy event for India so far at the games, and it proved to be so again with another two gold medals. Sift Kaur Samra won the 50m Rifle 3 positions for women, helping India win the team event at the same time.

Day 5 of the games will see six golds won in the track and field events. The two 100m finals will close out the evening preceded by the Men’s 10,000m, the Women’s Long Jump, Men’s Discus and Men’s Shot Put.

Six golds will also be won in the pool while the fencing will get underway for the first time at the games in the Pidu Sports Centre Gymnasium.