Hosts Japan scored medals in five of the seven finals on the opening day of competition at the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Gifu. Following the withdrawal of teammate Rika Kaseda , Mikuni Yada was the only Japanese girl in the 5000 m but had no trouble scoring the gold medal, beating China's Li Hua Niu by 24 seconds to win in 16:31.65. Shumo Ozaki won Japan's other gold in the boys' pole vault by clearing 5.20 m for the first time. It also took a PB for Nanako Fujii to win silver in the girls' 10000 m racewalk, finishing 4 seconds behind winner Li Ma of China 45:20.59 to 45:24.35. Likewise in the girls' shot put final, where Honoka Oyama threw a PB of 15.54 m for silver behind Chinese gold medalist Liu Ru Zhang 's 16.05 m. The day's lone Japanese bronze came in the boys' hammer throw, where Masanobu Hattori threw 69.34 m to make the podium alongside the powerful Indian duo of Ashish Jakhar and Damneet Singh . In the girls...
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