Asian Athletics: Chitra bags gold, Anju wins silver

Add as a preferred source on Google

Amman, July 28: Chitra K Soman gave India its first gold medal by winning the women's 400m race on the third day of the ongoing Asian Athletics Championship here.

Chitra clocked 53.03 seconds, ahead of Japanese Asami Tanno (53.20s) and Sri Lankan S Mgnaka (54.11s) in the final yesterday

The Indian's effort was just a fraction of a second lesser than her season's best of 53.01s which she achieved in the Guwahati leg of the Asian Grand Prix last month, though much below her personal best of 52.48s.

Star long jumper Anju Bobby George won a silver, leaping 6.65m and in the process clearing the World Championship qualifying mark of 6.60m. But, the wind speed of 4.1m/s, which exceeded the legal limit, meant she did not qualify for the prestigious event in Osaka, Japan, next month.

Kazakhstan's Olga Rypakova jumped 6.66m in her last attempt to win the gold.

Anju had failed to clear the World Championship qualifying mark in the three legs of Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok, Guwahati and Pune last month, besides the National Combined Events and Jumps meet in Pune.

With the gold and silver, India's medal tally has swelled to six with one gold, four silver and one bronze.

Earlier on Thursday, Sinimole Paulose had won a silver in women's 800m, while JJ Shobha and Sushmita Singha Roy added a silver and bronze, respectively, in heptathlon.

Paulose had clocked 2:06.15 behind Truong Thanh Hang of Vietnam (2:04.77), while another Indian, Sushma Devi, was fourth with a timing of 2:10.63. Ayako Jinnouchi (2:08.75) of Japan got the bronze.

Paulose's effort was well below her personal best of 2:02.02 and her season's best mark of 2:04.65 during the National Combined Events and Jumps in Pune last month.

In women's heptathlon, Shobha scored 5,356 points, while Sushmita totalled 5,154. The gold in the seven-event discipline was won by Irina Naumenko of Kazakhstan with 5,617 points.

On Wednesday, the first day of the championship, national record holder Preeja Sreedharan had won a silver in women's 10,000m race.

UNI