KOBE (Japan), July 9: Wassana Winatho clinched Thailand’s first gold medal of the week when she won the women’s heptathlon at the Asian Athletics Championships here on Saturday.

She collected a total of 5,710 points from 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin and 800m, beating Japanese rivals Humie Takehara and Chie Kiriyama into second and third.

It was the first time that a Thai athlete has won the event since the inaugural 1981 championships.

Bahrain won the men and women’s 5,000m with Dejenee Regasa Mootumaa clocking 13:39.71 and Tejitu Daba Chalchissa crossing the line in 15:22.48, while Taiwan claimed their first title through men’s shot-putter Chang Ming-huang.

China and Japan shared two gold medals each as Xie Limei won the women’s triple jump with a mark of 14.54m and Wu Sha won the women’s pole vault, leaping 4.35m.

Satomi Kubokura emerged victorious in the women’s 400m hurdles with a time of 56.52, while Takatoshi Abe took the men’s 400m hurdles title in 49.64.

In other action, Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim won the men’s high jump with a mark of 2.35m, while Ali Zenkawi of Kuwait won the men’s hammer throw in 73.73m.

Leading results: Men’s: 5000m: 1 Dejenee Regasa Mootumaa (BRN) 13:39.71; 2 Yuki Sato (JPN) 13:40.78; 3 Alemu Bekele Gebre (BRN) 13:41.93.

400m hurdles: 1 Takatoshi Abe (JPN) 49.64; 2 Yuta Imazeki (JPN) 50.22; 3 Chen Chieh (TPE) 50.39.

High jump: 1 Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) 2.35m; 2 Majd Eddin Ghazal (SYR) 2.28; 3 Wang Chen (CHN) 2.26.

Shot put: 1 Chang Ming-huang (TPE) 20.14m; 2 Zhang Jun (CHN) 19.77; 3 Omprakash Singh Karhana (IND) 19.47.

Hammer throw: 1 Ali Zenkawi (KUW) 73.73m; 2 Hiroshi Noguchi (JPN) 70.89; 3 Hiroaki Doi (JPN) 70.69.

Women’s: 5000m: 1 Tejitu Daba Chalchissa (BRN) 15:22.48; 2 Hitomi Niiya (JPN) 15:34.19; 3 Yuriko Kobayashi (JPN) 15:42.59.

400m hurdles: 1 Satomi Kuborura (JPN) 56.52; 2 Yang Qi (CHN) 56.69; 3 Christine Sonali Merril (SRI) 57.30.

Pole vault: 1 Wu Sha (CHN) 4.35m; 2 Li Ling (CHN) 4.30; 3 Choi Yun-Hee (KOR) 4.00.

Triple jump: 1 Xie Limei (CHN) 14.54m; 2 Valeriya Kanatova (UZB) 14.14; 3 Mayookha Johny (IND) 14.11.

Heptathlon: 1 Wassana Winatho (THA) 5710; 2 Humie Takehara (JPN) 5491; 3 Chie Kiriyama (JPN) 5442.—Agencies