Mikio Oda Memorial Athletics 2023: Ankita breaches Asian Games qualification mark, Abdulla Aboobacker wins in men's triple jump

Hiroshima [Japan], April 29 : Indian athlete Ankita exceeded the requirement to compete in the Asian Games 2022 at the Mikio Oda Memorial Athletics 2023 competition in Hiroshima, Japan, after placing fifth in the women's 5,000-meter race on Saturday.

Ankita exceeded the Asian Games qualifying mark of 15.49.00 set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) by clocking a personal best time of 15:33.24s, as per Olympics.com.

The Indian athlete reduced her previous time by nearly 22 seconds from 15:55.15s, which she ran at the Indian Grand Prix 1 earlier in the year.

Abdulla Aboobacker, a silver medalist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the men's triple jump, won among the other Indian competitors at the Japan competition with a season-best leap of 16.31 metres.

With a timing of 8.47.71 seconds, Balkishan placed 10th in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase.

In memory of the late Mikio Oda, a great Japanese track and field athlete who won the triple jump gold medal in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, the Mikio Oda Memorial Athletics meet is an annual competition conducted in Japan.

The Japan Association of Athletics Federations (JAAF) is in charge of orgsing the competition, which was first contested in 1986. It is a bronze-level World Athletics competition.