Advertisement

India win 3 medals on last day, finish 3rd at Asian Athletics

Long distance runner Kavita Raut and women`s 4x400m relay team won a silver each while men`s 4x400m relay quartet bagged a bronze on the final day as India ended the Asian Athletics Championships at third position.

Guangzhou: Long distance runner Kavita Raut and women`s 4x400m relay team won a silver each
while men`s 4x400m relay quartet bagged a bronze on the final day as India ended the Asian Athletics Championships at third position here today. India, who sent a 60-strong squad, ended the five-day competition at third with 12 medals (one gold, 4 silver, 7 bronze). China (18 gold, 19 silver, 10 bronze) and Japan (12 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze) finished first and second respectively. Raut, who had won a bronze in 5000m on the opening day, ran her personal best of 34:17.21 in the 1000m race. She gave a tough fight to 2009 Berlin World Championships marathon gold winner Xue Bai who won the race in 34:11.14. Raut, who was preferred to last edition medal winner Preeja Shridharan in both 5000m and 10000m, bettered her earlier personal best of 34:23.80. Compatriot Preeti Rao was seventh with an effort of 35:22.65. Another Chinese, Wang Jiali stood third with a last-gasp dash in 34:22.64. The Indian women`s quartet of Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose, K Chitra Soman and Manjeet Kaur then fetched the country`s second silver of the day in 3:31.62 behind China (3:31.08). Japan took the bronze at 3:31.95. The surprise package were the men`s 4x400m relay quartet of Harpreet Singh, Bibin Mathew, VB Bineesh and Shaikh Mortaja who won a bronze, clocking 3:06.83. Japan (3:04.13) and China (3:06.60) won gold and silver respectively. The men`s and women`s 4x100m relay teams, however, flopped. The women`s quartet were disqualified while the men`s team of NB Gobbaragumpi, Sathya Suresh, Sameer Mon and Abdul Najeeb Qureshi finished fifth with a time of 39.58. In women`s high jump, Sahana Kumari was seventh with an effort of 1.80m. Surendra Kumar pulled out of the men`s 10,000m race, which saw compatriot Sunil Kumar finishing sixth with a time of 29:28.73. Surendra did not take part in 5000m also. In men`s javelin throw final, Narayan Om finished fourth by clearing a distance of 75.36m. Bureau Report