Indian Athletics – Asian Grand Prix -II – Rajiv helps India maintain its gold status in the second leg / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Chonburi, Thailand – 8 May 2013 – India’s Jithin Thomas was lucky to retain his gold medal position in the second leg of Asian Grand Prix series at IPE Chonburi Campus Stadium after having locked in to a battle with three other high jumpers who all scaled the identical height of 2.21m.

 The 22-year-old Keralite is having a personal best of 2.22m registered during last year’s Open Nationals at Chennai.  Unlike the first leg in Bangkok four days ago, where a mere 2.18m was enough for him to win the event, Jithin had a stiff challenge from others right from the beginning this afternoon.  Jin Qi Chao of China, Hiromi Takahari of Japan and Anton Bodnar of Kazakhstan shared the same height of 2.21m with Jithin.  But Thomas adjudged winner on a ‘count-back’.  However Nikhil Chittarasu, the second entry from India in this event, who managed to win a silver medal in the first-leg could not improve his Bangkok height (2.18m) and thus finished sixth today.

 Indian quarter-miler Arokia Rajiv had a convincing win in men’s 400m race.  Just two weeks to celebrate his 22nd birthday, the one-lapper from Tamil Nadu improved his personal best to 46.54 secs for today’s victory.   Karnataka’s Poovamma added another gold in women’s 400m although her time – 53.57 secs – was slower than her previous effort.  The second Indian in the race, Anu Mariam Jose, finished third in 54.86s behind Yuliya Rakhmanova of Kazakhstan who clocked 54.30 for the silver.

 India matched its four gold medals status from the first leg when distance runner Nitin Rawat annexed his second gold of the series with a win over 3000m in 8:18.25 and once again made it 1-2 with compatriot Kheta Ram taking the second spot in 8:18.74.

 Krishna coated the silver-lining to discus

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia delivered her season’s best 59.43m to win a silver in the women’s discus throw.  The title went to Chinese Su Xinyue with a notable 61.67m while her teammate Jian Fengjing was just 2 cm behind Poonia for the bronze medal.

 Two Indian athletes, hurdler Siddhanth Thingalaya and triple jumper Renjith Maheswary, once again fell short of the expectations.  Siddhanth slipped to third place in 110m hurdles (13.90s) where Kuwaiti Abdulaziz Almandeel continued his dominance with a 13.69s clocking for the victory.

 Roman Valiyev extends his winning streak in triple jump with 16.69m leap which eventually just 1 cm better than Renjith’s 16.68m today while Arpinder Singh managed to fill the remaining place on the podium with his 16.53m mark.

At the end India had 4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals in the second leg of the Asian GP here.

 In other events the Chonburi leg witnessed brilliant relay races in both men and women sections.  Hong Kong made a world championship qualification as their men clocked a mesmerising 39.17 secs to win over Singapore (39.45) and China (39.79).   A guest team from Australia lead by Olympic hurdler Sally Pearson won the women’s race in 44.06 sec but narrowly missed the qualification norm by 0.06 secs.

 The final leg of the Asian Grand Prix will be held at Colombo on 12th May.

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /

 Indian Athletics