Asian Games 2023 athletics: Puripol Boonson, Muhd Azeem Fahmi take Southeast Asian medals in men's 100m as PR China's Xie Zhenye wins gold
Silver medallist Boonson also sets a new personal best in the semi-finals, while Malaysia's Fahmi clinches his country's second bronze medal of the athletics meet.
Athletics
There was double happiness for Southeast Asia's sprinters Puripol Boonson of Thailand and Muhammad Azeem Fahmi of Malaysia in the men's 100m athletics final at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou held in 2023 on Saturday (30 September), as they claimed silver and bronze respectively in a fast race behind Xie Zhenye of hosts People's Republic of China.
Xie led from the start, having had the fastest reaction time out of the blocks, and breezed to a fast 9.97 seconds. It appeared to tie his personal best, before the wind reading for the race was revealed to have been over the allowable limit for records (+2.4 metre-per-second tailwind).
Boonson, who had set a 10.06 personal best in the semi-finals, would also have broken that mark had the final been legal for records purposes, crossing the line in 10.02 having been a clear second behind Xie but ahead of the rest of the field throughout.
"Even though I won the silver medal I did my best and my personal best so I'm very proud of the results today," the Thai told reporters. The 17-year-old debutant added: "It was indeed hard because I'm the youngest one in this competition. All the others already went to world competitions before. I'm very proud of being able to participate with all these great experienced runners."
Azeem, meanwhile, was perhaps a surprise bronze medallist, winning Malaysia's second medal of the evening (10.11) after Shereen Samson's earlier women's 400m bronze.
"(I thought) it's going to be tough because there's two China sprinters in the final," Azeem admitted. "I thought it was going to be so pressured, but then I took it as an advantage because actually they're having the pressure because they're running on their home ground. I just stick with the plan, stay relaxed, push through the first 30 (metres) and yeah."
Lalu Muhammad Zohri of Indonesia finished sixth in 10.16, having successfully lowered his season's best at this meet by over four-tenths with a 10.12 in the semi-finals.
Winner Xie said later: "I've waited for this gold since my first Asian Games at Incheon 2014. Heaven rewards those who wait. I felt all of the support from everyone, I think that support had a lot of strength. It gave me a lot of drive to persevere during the times I felt I was in the valley. I've doubted myself before. But today, I've shown everyone that I’ve never given up, I always kept working hard."