Manama, Bahrain, October 26, 2025: China didn’t have it all their way on the final day of the track and field competition winning only two of the nine gold medals on offer on Sunday, October 26.
China continued to lead the medal standings as the 3rd Asian Youth Games reached the halfway mark having a haul of 69 medals including 34 golds, well ahead of second-placed Uzbekistan with 28-14.
But the Chinese athletics juggernaut at the Bahrain National Stadium was brought to a shuddering halt by spirited resistance from a number of Asian countries resulting in the Asian powerhouse having to settle for silver on four occasions and a bronze.
Xie Yiqing won China a gold medal early in the programme when she won the Girls’ Triple Jump, but then they had to wait right until the end before striking gold again in the Boys’ medley relay.
Here too China had to fight hard as a Sri Lankan quartet pushed them all the way only to lose the gold medal by two hundredths of a second.
Uzbekistan grabbed two golds in the girls’ javelin throw and girls’ 3,000m, and there were winning performances from Kuwait (Yasmeen Roy in the girls’ high jump), Kazakhstan (boys’ discus), Chinese Taipei (boys’ 3,000m), Thailand (boys’ pole vault), and United Arab Emirates (girls’ medley relay).
Despite the last day's resistance from the rest of Asia, China still dominated the track and field grabbing 36 medals, including 20 golds, to underline their top-dog status on the continent.
China’s next generation of athletes demonstrated depth across key Olympic events including sprints, hurdles, walking, middle-distance running and a number of field events.
On the track, China’s young runners delivered strong performances. Lai Jianguang set the tone when on the second of the four days of athletics, he won the boys’ 100m in 10.56 seconds, setting a new Games record in the process. Wu Mingwei won the boys 400m hurdles. Chen Xinxuan took the girls’ 200m, and Song Jinping claimed the girls’ 800m title. Xu Chengwei secured victory in the boys’ 2,000m steeplechase.
China’s field athletes also performed strongly. Zhou Ruhan won the girls’ long jump while in the boys’ event it was a one-two with Yuan Lei claiming gold. Wang Yiru won the girls’ hammer throw and in the boys’ shot put Jiang Haozheng clinched gold.
