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Indian women 1600m relay quartet won the gold in style ©Indian Athletics
Indian Athletics – News – 20th Asian Athletics Championships – Indian women 1600m relay quartet won the gold in style -/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /-
Pune, India – 7 July 2013 – Notwithstanding the absence of the top names on the business, the Indian quartet of Nirmala, Tintu Luka, Anu Mariam Jose and M.R. Poovamma brought in the electrifying atmosphere to the Balewadi Stadium by ascertain the Indian supremacy in women’s 4 x 400m relay with a time of 3:32.26 in 20th Asian Athletics Championships.
It was the ninth time that the Indians won the gold in this event in Asian championships. To add further joy, they also made it to the World championships in Moscow as the qualifying standard for the Worlds stands at 3:33.00.
After Nirmala gave the baton as the second athlete, Tintu—just recovered after her bronze winning 800m—ran a brilliant second leg to brought a lead for Anu Mariam Jose who extends the lead further to give Poovamma a head-start. Poovamma ran a splendid anchor run to ensure the gold never slip from the Indian’s hands. China (3:35.31) and Japan (3:35.72) occupied the next two places in this event.
Saudi Arabian foursome of Mohammed Alsubiani, Ali Albishi, Obaid Alsalhi and Yousef Ahmed Al-Masrahi sets a new meet mark in the men’s race with a time of 3:02.53. Japan (3:04.46) and Sri Lanka (3:04.92) were the other podium finishers. Indian men finished fourth in 3:06.01.
A unique double for Betlhem and the Emirates
Two days ago Betlhem Belayneh Desalegn became the first woman from U.A.E. to win a gold medal for her country in the Asian championships. On Sunday evening she made it a “double” by adding the 5000m gold to the 1500m she won earlier.
Bahraini runners Shitaye Eshete, the winner of 10000m at Pune, and defending champion Tejitu Daba Chalchis did the front running with Betlhem behind them on the lead bunch. At the bell the Emirates runner snatched the lead from Shitaye and went on the win in a new championship record 15:12.84. To make things in further perspective it was a BIG improvement of Indian all-comers’ record held by Kenyan Peninah Arusei (15:42.20) since 2007 at the World Military Games in Hyderabad. Eshete on the second place (15:22.17) also bettered the previous meet mark of country-mate Chalchis (15:22.48 at Kobe-2011). Chalchis went home with the bronze in 15:38.63.
It was 1-2 for Bahrain in the men’s race. Dejene Regassa (13:53.25) and Alemu Bekele (13:57.23) started their victory lap when many other runners in the race still have laps to go! Emad Hamed Nour (Saudi Arabia) took the bronze while G. Lakshmanan was the top among the Indians in 14:17.01 fourth place.
Zyabkina became the first Kazakh to win women’s 200m gold
Viktoriya Zyabkina made a history by winning the first ever gold medal for Kazakhstan in the women’s 200m in 23.62 secs. What surprised everyone was the splendid show put in by two Indians Asha Roy and Dutee Chand in this event. National champion Ashay Roy clinched the silver in 23.71s while Chand locked-in a battle with Japan’s defending champion Chisato Fukushima, who made to the finals as a fastest loser in the semis. Finally the Indian got the bronze clocking 1/1000th of a second faster than Fukushima, 23.811 to 23.812, in a photo-finish verdict.
Xie Zenye of China brought the gold position to his country in the men’s 200m after two decades. There was tough competition between him, Saudi Arabian Al-subaie and Japanese Takase. Zhenye breezed through 20.87 secs to cross the finish-line first while a tiring Al-subaie hold it with Takase, both timed 20.92, with the Saudi takes the silver.
Japanese athletes won both the gold medals in hurdles
It was a profitable day for Japan in the Asian championships here on Sunday evening as they took successive gold medals in 400m hurdles.
As usual the rain started when the men were at the blocks but it did not deter the spirit of Yasuhiro Fueki of Japan, the top seed here to win the gold, as he had a perfect lead over others right from the beginning to win the race in 49.86 secs—the slowest winning time in six years. China’s Cheng Wen went home with the silver in 50.07s while India’s Satinder Singh pips Yuta Imazeki of Japan 50.35 to 50.36 secs for the bronze.
The women’s race was won by Satomi Kubokura in 56.82 secs with Manami Kira made it 1-2 for Japan in 57.78s. Korean Jo Eun-Ju settled with a bronze in 58.21s.
It was the fourth time that the athletes from Japan won gold medals in both men and women divisions at the same championships. Earlier they had this unique double in Tokyo-1981, Guangzhou-2009 and Kobe-2011.
Cao Shuo pushed Indians Renjith and Arpinder for triple jump gold
Former Asian junior champion Cao Shuo (China) snatched the gold from the Indian record-holder Renjith Maheswary in 1 cm (16.77 to 16.76m). Shuo, the Guangzhou Asiad bronze medallist, made the winning leap on the fourth round. Renjith, jumped 16.98m this season to win the Inter-State championships at Chennai last month, had problems from the beginning before find his rhythm to hop, step and jumped to 16.76m on the fifth round. A big one was expected from Renjith in the final round, but he disappoints with 16.51m. Arpinder Singh was the second Indian to take the podium with 16.58m.
The third Indian on the fray, Mohammed Salahuddin (19y-187d), registered a personal best junmp of 15.71m to finish sixth.
Tintu repeats Kobe act in 800m
Half-miler Tintu Luka did her usual lead run in the women’s 800m race. Wang Chunyu, the top seed here, overtakes the Indian about 150 metres after the bell with Bahrain’s Regasa Genzeb Shumi made an effort to catch the leader in the waning moments of the race. Chunyu sprinted to gold in 2:02.47 while Tintu’s effort to keep the second position could not liven-up as the Bahraini kicked her on the home straight for the silver 2:04.16. Tintu finished third, the same place she got two years ago, in 2:04.48.
In the men’s race Musaab Abdelrahman Balla of Qatar ran a start-to-finish race with 55 secs first lap. Abdulaziz Ladan Mohammed of Saudi Arabia made a desperate effort to catch Balla but the Qatari delivered a high-octane sprint to win in 1:46.92. Ladan (1:47.01) and Bahrain’s Bilal Mansour Ali (1:48.56) went away with the silver and bronze while India’s Manjit Singh finished fourth in 1:49.70.
A silver from Jithin in the jump-off
On the field the high jumpers snatched much attention from the near filled stadium fans. Jithin C Thomas (India), Keyvan Ghanbarzadeh (Iran) and Bi Xiaoliang (China) were in a keen contest for the top spot. The above jumpers cleared an identical 2.21m. As no one cleared the next height (2.24m) and their total number of failures in the event remains the same, there was a ‘jump-off’ to decide the gold medal position. Xiaoliang, after missed 2.22 and 2.20, cleared the 2.18 on the ‘one golden chance’ and declared the winner with the other two settled with silver medals.
It could have been a different scenario if Asian record-holder Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, who is nursing for a back injury at home, made his presence at Pune.
China tops the medal tally for the fifteenth time
China recaptured the top position with a whooping 16 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze medals. After winning the championships fourteen times in a row from 1983 to 2009, it conceded the number one spot to Japan in the last edition held at Kobe in 2011. (After doping disqualifications of some athletes, China elevated to first place thereafter). So getting back in to the “numero uno” position with a absolute majority in Pune was a great feeling for the athletes from the Asian power-house.
Bahrain (5-7-3), Japan (4-6-10), Saudi Arabia (4-2-1), Uzbekistan (3-4-1) finished behind the leader in that order with hosts India finished sixth with 2 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze medals. Twenty out of 43 participating nations won a medal in Pune.
Yousef Ahmed Al-Masrahi (400m, Saudi Arabia) and Ruth Jebet (3000m Steeplechase, Bahrain) have been adjudged as the ‘Best Athletes’ among the men and women respectively.
Log on to www.indianathletics.in for the complete results and other relevant information on the five day championships, which concluded here with sweet memories to share among all the participants.
-/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /-
Indian Athletics – News
Stats by Ken Nakamura
