The Japanese were the first Asian people to turn from the ceremonial, protocol-stiff sports (sumo, jujitsu) of their past to more competitive Western athletics. They have also consistently produced the only
Asian athletes to come really close to Western records. Last week at Manila, 18 Oriental nations (not including Red China) competed in the Second Asian Games and the Japanese again ran off and swam off with most of the honors. But competition from other Asian nations seemed to be getting stiffer
Manila's Rizal Stadium was the scene of the Second Asiad, and a few Filipinos had trouble forgetting that the Japanese had holed up in that very spot for a last-ditch stand during the liberation of Manila in World War II. But such memories were soon drowned by roars of approval for the Japanese performances. One of the stars of the meet was a slender (5 ft. 4 in., 116 lbs.) 19-year-old Japanese girl named Atsuko Nambu, who won the 100-meter event, placed second at 200 meters and in the broad jump, and anchored the
Japanese women's relay team. (Atsuko's father, Chuhei Nambu, now an Osaka sportswriter, was the Olympic hop-step-jump champion in 1932). Other standouts in Manila:
¶ King-size (6 ft. 1 in., 210 lbs.) Pardu-man Singh of India, dubbed the "Samson" of the meet. Blackbearded Singh, a Sikh sergeant in the Indian army's armored corps, won the shotput (46 ft. 4⅝ in.) and discus (142 ft. 3⅝ in.).
¶ Pakistan's Abdul Khaliq, 21, "fastest man in Asia," who, after only two years of running, won the 100-meter dash in 10.6 seconds (Olympic record: 10.3).
¶ South Korea's bantamweight(123¼ lbs.) weightlifter Ho Yu In, who set a world mark of 285 lbs. for the two-hand clean and jerk.
¶ The Philippines' weightlifter Rodrigo Del Rosario, a featherweight (132¼ lbs.), who broke his own world record with a two-hand press of 239.34 lbs.
Despite the brilliance of individual performers, no country could match the overall team balance of the Japanese, who won the Second Asiad (as they had the first, in New Delhi in 1951) with a team score of 2,390 points. Runners-up: the Philippines, with 1,736½ points.