19. Asian Athletics Championships/Kobe – Athletics India – News – Sudha Singh gets silver medal, Tintu Luka and Ghamanda Ram won bronze – By / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Kobe, 10 July 2011 – The 19^th Asian Athletics Championships have concluded with a grand ceremony at Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium here on Sunday evening.

India ended its campaign with one silver and two bronze medals on the last day of the above championship by taking its total to 11 (1 gold, 2 silver and 8 bronze medals) in the four-day meet, which is almost equaled its performance in the last edition held at Guangzhou two years ago (1G, 3S, 7B).

Sudha Singh, reigning Asian Games gold medalist in women's 3000m steeplechase, had won a silver medal in her pet event clocking 10:08.52 behind Japanese Minori Hayakari who improved her country-woman Yoshika Tatsumi's two year old meet mark to 9:52.42 to win the gold.  The bronze went to Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Phuong in 10:14.94.

Earlier the nation's top women half-miler Tintu Luka, tipped to clash for the 800m title crown with Margarita Matsko of Kazakhstan, finished third in 2:02.55.  Matsko, the Asian Games victor in this event, also lost the battle to Vietnamese Truong Thanh Hang 2:01.41 to 2:02.46.   Tintu thus kept her bronze medal status from Guangzhou Asiad.

The men's 800m saw another Asian Games winner, Sajad Moradi of Iran, losing the top spot to Mohamed Al-Azimi of Kuwait.  The Kuwaiti got a ‘golden double' adding the 800m title to his earlier win in 1500m.  In a closely contested race Al-Azimi clocked 1:46.14, the Iranian 1:46.35 while a re-emerging Indian Ghamanda Ram got the bronze in 1:46.46, missing an Olympic berth by just 0.16 secs.    The second Indian runner in this event, Sajeesh Joseph, finished fifth 1:48.56.

Yesterday Indian triple jumper Mayookha Johny leaped to an excellent 14.11m to qualify for the London Olympics.  She joined fellow Indian teammates Vikas Gowda (discus throw) and Gurmeet Singh (20 km walk) to sail for the next year's Olympic Games.

India finished eighth and last in the men's 4x100m relay (40.38 secs) while hosts Japan was victorious in 39.18s.   The women's 4x400m quartet of Mrudula Korada, Jhuma Khatun, O.P. Jaisha and Tintu Luka finished fourth and last in 3:44.17, an event which is otherwise used to be the national squad's cup of tea at the continental level.  A strong Japanese team annexed the gold in 3:35.00 here. 

In other events, former world record holder Liu Xiang of China (12.88s) improved his meet mark to 13.22 secs for the gold in men's 110m hurdles, while teammate Sun Yawei become victor in the women's 100m hurdles in 13.04 secs.  Chinese also pulled an upset in the women's high jump when Xingjuan Zheng grabbed the gold on ‘count-back' from fancied Uzbek jumper Svetlana Radzivil after both sailed over an identical height of 1.92m.  Kazakhstan's Marina Aitova was third in 1.89m. 

The Chinese women continued to rule the field with Meng Qianqian tossed the iron ball to a personal best 18.31m to win the shot put, beating her country-mate Liu Xiangrong by just 1 cm.  Leyla Rajabi gave Iran a bronze medal in this event with a throw of 16.60m. 

Su Xiongfeng made a golden leap of 8.19m in the men's long jump to increase the Chinese medal tally while local man Yukifumi Murakami set out the spear to a record 83.27m to win the javelin throw. 

Femi Seun Ogunode of Qatar provided a stunner in the men's 200m sprint posting a new meet mark of 20.41 secs.  Home favourite Chisato Fukushima cheered the fans by winning the women's in 23.49s.

Japan means PERFECTION and they proved it with an excellent conduct of the 19th Asian Athletics Championships in Kobe.  Further the hosts were on top in the medals tally by securing 11 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze medals and thus pushed the Asian sports power-house China to the second spot (10-12-5).  

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /