Former Nigeria athletes win 400m gold and silver for Bahrain and Qatar at Asian Games

Former Team Nigeria athlete Kemi Adekoya overcame Salwa Eid Naser to claim the women’s 400 metres title at the Asian Games here just months after the two Nigerian-born Bahraini sprinters returned to the track after serving doping bans.

Five years ago, Adekoya secured both the women’s 400m hurdles and mixed 4x400m relay crowns at the Asian Games in Jakarta Palembang only to be found to have tested positive for banned steroid stanozolol a year later.

The Athletics Integrity Unit stripped Adekoya of her two golds from Jakarta Palembang 2018 and handed down a four-year doping ban.

Adekoya returned to athletics in July - one month after Naser had made her comeback after completing a two-year suspension for whereabouts failures.

It was a much-anticipated dual between the two returning athletes and it lived up to its billing in Hangzhou.

Running from lane eight, Adekoya, the Incheon 2014 champion, managed to maintain the lead when going around the final bend.

Naser, seeking to retain her title, mounted a fightback in the closing metres only for Adekoya to hold on for the victory in 50.66sec.

It was a Bahraini one-two with 2019 world champion Naser sealing silver in 50.92, while Malaysia's Vallabouy Shereen Samson claimed bronze in 52.58.

Bahrain had a great day on the track as Birhanu Balew produced a stunning final leg to win the men’s 10,000m title in a time of 28:13.62.

India picked up two medals, with Kumar Kartik and Gulveer Singh posting personal best times of 28:15.38 and 28:17.21 respectively.

China enjoyed a sprint double as Ge Manqi and Xie Zhenye captured their respective

women’s and men’s 100m titles.

Ge edged Singaporean Veronica Shanti Pereira on the line to triumph in 11.23 before Xie clocked 9.97 to win gold to the delight of the home crowd.

China had already celebrated the success of Wang Qi who topped the men’s hammer throw standings with 72.94m.

Yousef Masrahi of Saudi Arabia came through to snatch men's 400m gold from Japan's Kentaro Sato in a thrilling finish.

There was just 0.02 between them as Masrahi reclaimed the title that he last won at Incheon in 2014.

World silver medallist EJ Obiena of the Philippines broke the Asian Games men’s pole vault record with 5.90m to seal gold.

China strengthened its position at the top of the medals table, with nine further gold medals to move to 114 overall.