India's Sanjivani wins bronze in Asian Cross Country race

Bengaluru, March 15: India's Sanjivani B Jadhav clinched bronze in the 8km event of the 14th Asian Cross Country Race Championship at Guiyang, China.

Congratulations to Sanjivani Jadhav for winning Bronze in the women's 8km cross country race at the 14th Asian Cross Country championship Guiyang, China.@afiindia | @IndiaSports | #CrossCountryRace | @xcmag pic.twitter.com/4zXJDDDm3N

— FISTO (@FISTOSPORTS) March 15, 2018

China's Lin Dan won the race in 28:03 while Japan's Abe Yukari finished second in 28:06.

Sanjivani, the World University Games 10,000M silver medallist,ended up third in 28:19 and her effort is commendable considering it is India's first individual medal in the Asian meet since Rohini Raut's effort in Amman, Jordan, in 2007.

It was double delight for Sanjivani and India as the women clinched bronze in the team event. Swati Gadhave and Juma Khatum were the other members of the Indian squad

Bronze winning #India women's (8km) team at #Asian #crosscountry chmps2018,Guiyang #China @IndiaSports @navneetsport @kaypeem @KatochBikash @VishankRazdan @PathakVishal3 @Heilige_Kugel @nitinarya99 @AndrewAmsan @StanByMe28 @Media_SAI @g_rajaraman @Ra_THORe pic: @rahuldpawar pic.twitter.com/A0yOUQOmMA

— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) March 15, 2018

A 13-member Indian contingent is participating in the meet, which also saw the comeback of Lalita Babar, after marriage, with the Olympian whose best performance at the 2016 Rio Games was the 10th-place finish at the 3,000M steeplechase ending up 15th.

Among other top Indian perfromance, national champion Shankar Man Thapa of Services was the best finisher (ninth) in the men's event while Ajay K Bhind was 10th in the junior men's section.

In the junior women's category, there were two Indians in the top-ten, including Poonam Sonune who was sixth.

Meanwhile, to sharpen their skills further and get acclimatised to the conditions ahead of next month's Commonwealth Games (CWG), a four-member Indian athletics team, including star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, departed for Gold Coast, Australia, an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) release said.

National record holder triple jumper Arpinder Singh and long jumpers Nayana James and Neena Varakil also left along with Chopra, the IAAF U-20 world champion.

The Indians will camp and train at Super Sports Center in Gold Coast till March 25 before moving to the Commonwealth Games Village.

Super Sports Center in Gold Coast has an IAAF approved athletics track.

"The facility has other required amenities as well which will help our athletes in their training. Reaching Gold Coast in advance will help athletes get acclimatised with the conditions and we hope we'll have good results during the Games, " said India's deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair.

In the previous edition of Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow in 2014, India had won three medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).

Of the 31-member athletics team selected for CWG after the Federation Cup in Patiala, Tejaswin Shankar, Indian record holder in high jump, who is currently training in the US will join the Indian team later.

Other members of the team will depart in different groups later this week, the AFI release added.

(With Agency inputs)