Ram, Antil bag 2 medals for India in Asian GP

Jiaxiang: Middle distance star Ghamanda Ram won a silver while discus thrower Seema Antil bagged a bronze medal in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix series.

Ram secured the silver in the 800m and was just a fraction of second (0.22s) slower reigning Asian Games gold medalist Sadjad Moradi of Iran, who won the gold with a moderate timing of 1:50.47s. Local runner Yang Xiaofei took the bronze clocking 1:50.84s. The second Indian in the fray, Sajeesh Joseph, finished fifth with a timing of 1:51.62s. In women`s discuss throw, Antil hurled the disc to 49.77m for the bronze medal behind China`s Yang Fei (58.01m) and Lin Xiaojing (51.52m).Among other Indians, the outstanding performer of the day was triple jumper Mayookha Johny. She registered a personal best 13.71m, which was just 1cm short of M A Prajusha`s national mark set during the Commonwealth Games at New Delhi last October, and missed out a chance to make the podium by finished fourth. The Chinese were 1-2 here too with Li Yanmei (13.98m) and Xie Limei (13.93m) taking the top spots with Uzbekistan`s Aleksandra Kotlyarova taking home the bronze medal with an effort of 13.80m. Bibin Dev (fifth in triple jump with 16.19m) and Mahan Singh (sixth in long jump with 7.35m) among men and Suman Devi (fifth in javelin throw with 45.93m) in women`s division were the other Indian performers of the day. China`s Chen Qiang (10.38 secs) was the fastest man while the honour went to veteran Guzel Khubbieva of Uzbekistan (11.46 secs) in the women`s section. PTI