China emerged the overall champion over the weekend in the Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Jakarta.

China finished the four-day event with 14 gold medals, leaving Japan in a distant second place with seven and Indonesia's regional rival Thailand in third place with four.

On Sunday, the champion added to its golds by taking the women's 800 meter, long jump, 5,000 meter, 4x400 meter and the men's relay, major newspaper The Jakarta Post reported Monday.

Taking the silver and gold in long jump was China, with Sha Bao jumping 6.32 meters and Yan Mei Li right behind at 6.28 meters. Chan-Mi Bae of South Korea took third at 6.10 meters.

Indonesian athletes made the finals in 11 events, but all failed to stand atop the podium.

Paulus Lay, deputy chairman at the Indonesian Athletics Association (PASI) in charge of athlete development, said he was not disappointed with the results.

"I am quite proud of the athletes because most of them secured places in the final rounds. Some of them even broke national juniors records. It's a satisfying result," he said.

On Saturday, 17-year-old host sprinter Franklin Buruni clocked 21.44 seconds in the men's 200 meter to shatter the 20-year-old national record by Mardi Lestari, who recorded 21.47 seconds in 1986.

However, Franklin misfired in the final, languishing in eighth in the final round with a time of 22.21 seconds.

First place went to Omar Salfa of the United Arab Emirates, who recorded 21.04 seconds. Xiang Huang took second at 21.26 and Adel J.A. Asseri of Saudi Arabia was third with 21.38.

Indonesia could only collect one silver and three bronzes to finish 17th among 23 countries and regions.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2008)