MANILA, Philippines, 23 September 2003 — World championship bronze medalist Sun Yangjie completed a distance double yesterday at the Asian titles with a convincing win in the 5,000 meters.

Her teammates were also dominant, with China increasing its lead to double digits atop the medal standings at the continental athletics championships.

Japan won its first gold of the meet when Kazuyoshi Ishikawa won the men’s triple jump with a best leap of 16.72 meters, edging China’s Gu Junjie by four centimeters.

Utilizing her distinctive and economical low arm action to full effect in Manila’s humid conditions, Sun started at the rear of the pack but quickly worked to the front and pulled clear with a surging sprint about five laps to go.

She finished in 15 minutes, 48.12 seconds, 70 meters ahead of Japan’s Yuko Manabe at 15:59.81. Hiromi Fujii secured bronze for Japan at 16:31.18, edging barefoot Sri Lankan Sujeewa Nilmini Jayasena with a late lunge.

“My time was bit slow, but it was not deliberate,” said Sun, who prides herself on grueling training and competition regimes. “It was just that I am not feeling well today.”

Sun was the only double gold medalist at Manila in the first three days of the meet.

She won the 10,000 on Saturday in 32:37.04, more than two minutes outside her world championships effort in Paris. She led until 300 meters out at the worlds last month and finished third to Ethiopian Berhane Adhere, who set a meet record 30:04.18 and clocked the third-fastest time ever.

Her 5,000-10,000 double here replicated her dual wins at the Asian Games in Busan last September and sets her up as the region’s top distance runner.

She now wants to take a short break and rest up to prepare for the Beijing Marathon in the middle of next month.

China started the day with nine gold medals and hit double figures in the morning session when Han Yuncheng wiped more than two minutes off the meet record in the 20-kilometer walk. He was timed in 1 hour, 21 minutes, 11.3 seconds, 11 seconds ahead of Yuki Yamasaki of Japan.

Sun’s win made it 11 gold medals for China and Gu Yuan made it 12 with a win in the women’s hammer. Gu, who won the Asian Games and was fourth at the recent world championships, led compatriot Liu Yinghui with a best throw of 70.78 meters. Masumi Aya of Japan was third at 64.04 and Huang Chi-feng of Taiwan was fourth.

Li Rongxiang won the javelin with a throw of 79.25 meters to give China its 13th gold and increase its overall haul to 26 medals.

Yukifumi Murakami of Japan was second at 77.04 and Uzbekistan’s Sergey Voynov was third at 76:09. Kazakhstan won the last final of the evening with Grigoriy Yegorov clearing 5.40 meters to win the men’s pole vault by 10 centimeters from Satoru Yasuda of Japan.

Yang Mi-hui of Taiwan, Kim Sei-in of South Korea and Nunug Jayadi of Indonesia all cleared 5:10.