MANILA, 19 September 2003 — The world champion steeplechaser formerly known as Stephen Cherono will make his first appearance in the Asian Athletics championships beginning here tomorrow.
Kenya-born Cherono, who assumed the name of Said Saeed Shaheen when shifting allegiance to Qatar ahead of last month’s world championships in Paris, is the star turn of the biennial meet that features 1,200 athletes from 43 countries.
The 20-year-old approaches the meet in top form after setting a personal best of 7min 57.38sec set at Monaco last week.
No Asian has previously run the steeplechase below 8:08, and the meet record of 8:16.00 was set by Shaheen’s new compatriot, Khamis Abdulla at the last Asian championships in Sri Lanka in 2002. Abdulla is also the reigning Asian Games champion.
Shaheen goes straight to the final tomorrow. The championships blast off tomorrow with the women’s triple jump and shot put golds, as well as the men’s discus throw medals at stake. The Asian championships lost its top woman draw yesterday when the Manila organizers announced the withdrawal of the region’s sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe.
The Sri Lankan, the defending champion in both the 100m and the 200m sprints and Asia’s fastest woman in the century dash, suffered an injury at the Paris world championships, they said. Damayanthi Darsha, the Asian Games women’s 200m champion, is expected to carry the flag for Sri Lanka.
