By Hiroki Noda,
Japan picked up three bronze medals in athletics Wednesday at the Asian Games -- by Roderick Genki Dean in the men's javelin throw, Tomohiro Shinno in the men's high jump and Mariko Morimoto in the women's triple jump.
Tokyo Olympic javelin gold medalist Neeraj Chopra led a 1-2 finish for India with a throw of 88.88 meters, against runner-up Kishore Kumar Jena's 87.54, at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium.
"It feels great when we push each other to go further and further," Chopra said.
Dean, who hopes to make his first Olympic appearance since the 2012 London Games, rounded out the podium with a throw of 82.68 meters, falling short of his 83.15 season's best.
"It's been a pretty long season and my body was quite exhausted, but I did close to my season best," Dean said.
On how he fixed his mechanics since the world championships in August, he said, "Just throw simple, don't think too much about technique. Just throw the javelin and have some fun today. And it worked today."
In the men's high jump, Qatar's Mutaz Barshim won the gold, clearing the bar at 2.35 meters. South Korea's Woo Sang Hyeok took silver with a 2.33-meter leap, while Shinno cleared 2.29 meters.
Uzbekistan's Sharifa Davronova won the women's triple jump with a distance of 14.09 meters, followed by China's Zeng Rui with 13.92 and Morimoto with 13.78.
Morimoto's longest jump came in the fourth of her six attempts.
"I'm glad I was able to achieve my minimum goal of getting this bronze medal," Morimoto said. "This will be a good step for next year."
In other events on the second-to-last day of athletics, Sri Lanka's Tharushi Dissanayaka triumphed in the women's 800 meters in 2 minutes, 3.20 seconds.
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