Indian Athletics – News – 20th Asian Athletics Championships – Prem Kumar and Sudha Singh provides the silver-lining on the third day -/ By Ram. Murali Krishnan /-

Pune, India – 5 July 2013 – In the much anticipated Long Jump, India’s Kumaravel Prem Kumar could manage only a silver medal after the 20-year-old Indian leapt 7.92m in his last round on the third day of 20th Asian Athletics Championships in Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here on Friday evening.

Prem, holding a personal best of 8.00m from Chennai Inter-State championships last month, opened his campaign with 7.64m and improved it to 7.86 on the fourth round.  China’s Tang Gongchen led the fray with his first round 7.87m before his country-mate Wang Jianan surged ahead by leaping to 7.94m in the fifth round.  Jianan did another 7.95m to secure the gold while Prem Kumar (7.92) and Gongchen, with his fourth round 7.89m, pocket the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Jianan, the multi-event specialist, was just 16-years-311-days old and one of the youngest participants in Pune.

Prem, in a post-event interview, dedicated the medal to coach P. Nagarajan and recalled the patience of his mother in raising him to this standard under difficult economic conditions.  “I missed the gold here, but surely I do better in the next year’s Asian and Commonwealth Games” was his answer to the media.

It was India’s fifth medal in this championships and the one added to India’s overall medal tally in long jump after a gap of 13 years!  Sanjay Kumar Rai won a silver medal in 2000 at Jakarta.  Satish Pillai (bronze, 1973), T.C. Yohannan (gold, 1975) and Suresh Babu (silver, 1979) were the other medal winners for the country.

Sudha Singh garnered silver in steeplechase

Reigning Asian Games champion Sudha Singh had a powerful rival to tackle in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.  Baharaini runner Ruth Chebet ran a brilliant start to finish race to win the gold in a new championship (and national record) time of 9:40.84 while Sudha, having booked her Moscow berth already in last month’s Inter-State meet at Chennai, brought the second silver medal to India with a decent 9:56.27.  Pak Kum-Hyang of DPR Korea clocked 10:09.80 for the bronze.

Chebet was the youngest athlete to break a meeting record in Pune as she was just 16 years and 230 days old!

It was Sudha’s third consecutive silver medal in the Asian championships after 2009 and 2011.

Two bronze medals came through Samarjeet and Hemasree

Indian athletes also collected two surprise bronze medals as javelin thrower Samarjeet Singh set the spear out to a personal best 75.03m while Hemasree Jayabal also had PB of 14.01 secs and lucky to made it to the podium in women’s 100m hurdles after two hurdlers finished ahead her have been sent out for controversial false-start implications. 

Ayako Kimura of Japan (13.25s) and Anastassiya Soprunova of Kazakhstan (13.44) finished on the first two places in the hurdles race.  Hitomi Shimura (JPN) and Anastassiya Pilipenko (KAZ) have been allowed ‘under protest’ as they have not acceded to starter’s decision on false start in two consecutive starts, and finished third and fourth respectively with the times of 13.67 and 13.68 secs.

 However the officials revised the race results after the race and Hemasree elevated to the bronze position.

Siddhanth disappoints in 110m hurdles

National record-holder Siddhanth Thingalaya, the fastest qualifier from yesterday’s heats, was heavily disturbed after two re-calls from the starter.  Finally when the final race went through he came out from the blocks a bit late and fails to catch-up Jiang Fan, who finished second behind him in the qualifying heat on Thursday.  Fan (23), the leading hurdler on the scene, clocked a noteworthy 13.61 secs to win the race while fancied Abdulaziz Almandeel of Kuwait claimed the silver in 13.78s.  Japan’s Wataru Yazawa pips Siddhanth on the finish clocking 13.88 to13.89 secs.

India also missed another medal chance as steeplechaser Naveen Kumar, after charging Tsuyoshi Takeda of Japan for nearly 300m on the last lap finished fourth in 8:49.95—a personal best for him.  Reigning Asian Games champion Tarek Mubark Taher from Bahrain, a 9:06 steeplechaser, displayed his class to win in style at 8:34.77 for a 1-2 with teammate Dejene Regassa (8:37.40).  Takeda timed 8:48.48 to grab the bronze from the Indian.

Wang Zheng hammered another meet mark

Hammer Thrower Wang Zheng (China) sent the ball and chain to a record distance of 72.78m.  In that process she also improved the Indian all-comers’ record held by her country-mate Zhan Wenxiu (72.25m) set during the World Military Games in Hyderabad six years ago.  Liu Tingting joined her teammate on the podium with her 67.16m throw and Japan’s Masumi Aya filled the third place in 63.41m.  Indians Manju Bala (58.02m) and Gunjan Singh (55.05m) were fifth and sixth respectively.

The evening also witnessed two brilliant metric mile races.  Sini A Markose of India did the lead role in the initial stages of women’s 1500m.  Belayneh Betlhem Desalegn outkicked the Indian in the last lap to win in 4:13.67 to give the United Arab Emirates its first gold in the championships.  Pre-race favourite Mimi Belete (Bahrain) made an attempt to catch-up with her, but eventually finished second in 4:14.04.  Japan’s Ayako Jinnouchi snatched the bronze from the Indian 4:16.73 to 4:17.14.

In the men’s race, Saudi Arabian Imed Hamed Mohamed Noor took the top spot clocking 3:39.51 in rain.  Qatari Mohamad Algarni (3:40.75) and Bilal Mansour Ali (Bahrain) in 3:40.96 finished behind him.  After a fierce battle, last year’s runner-up Sajad Moradi (Iran) finished fourth in 3:41.60.

Anastasiya Juravleva gave Uzbekistan its first gold in women’s triple jump by leaping to 14.18m.  Teammate Aleksandra Kotlyarova (13.89) and Irina Ektova of Kazakhstan (13.75) were the other medal winners.

 -/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /-

Indian Athletics – News

Stats by Ken Nakamura