Rain fails to stop Danish, Haziq from reaching 200m semis

NAGOYA: Rain at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium failed to stop national sprinters Danish Iftikhar Roslee and Haziq Akhir from booking their places in the men's 200 metres semi-finals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday.

Danish, making his Asian Games debut, finished second in heat three in a season-best 21.04 seconds.

The 19-year-old crossed the line behind China's Huang You Wen, who clocked 20.90s, while Saudi Arabia's Abdulaziz Atafi was third in 21.15s and South Korea's Lee Jae Seong fourth in 21.42s.

The top four runners from each heat qualified automatically for the semi-finals, with four additional places awarded to the next fastest athletes.

Haziq advanced through the next-fastest quota after finishing fifth in heat five in 21.44s.

India's Animesh Kujur won the heat in 21.10s, followed by Thailand's Thawatchai Himaiad and Hong Kong's Magnus Prostur Johannsson, who both clocked 21.19s.

Oman's Ali Al Balushi was fourth in 21.41s.

Meanwhile, newly crowned Asian sprint king Puripol Boonson of Thailand also progressed to the semi-finals after winning heat one in 20.97s.

Puripol is chasing a second gold medal after winning the men's 100m final on Friday in 9.90s, setting a new Asian Games record.