Women 4x400m relay team wins gold, men's bag Silver

Doha, Dec 12 (UNI) The women 4x400m quartet saved India the blushes winning the only athletics Gold for the country while their fancied male counterparts disappointed finishing second on the last day of the blue ribbon event in the Asian Games here today.

Earlier, Sinimole Paulose ran a brave race in a very strong field to win a Bronze and Indian finished the day with one Gold, a Silver and a Bronze.

It was a disappointing end to Indian athletes' campaign in the Games as they finished with a total medal tally of 10 medals -- one Gold, five Silver and four Bronze -- as against 11 medals, including seven Gold they had won at the Busan Asian Games.

S Geetha, Pinki Paramanik, K Chitra and Manjeet Kaur broke the athletic Gold jinx for the country when they timed 3:32.95 to win the 4x400m title.

It was because of the brave effort of Chitra and Manjeet in the home stretch that the Indians could ward off a stiff Kazakhstan challenge to emerge winner.

Kazakhstan took Silver in 3:33.86, while China bagged Bronze in 3:33.92.

However, India suffered a major jolt in men's 4x400m relay where they were expected to win having entered the field with a 3:06.39 time.

But in the relay here this evening, the quartet of Aboo Backer, Joseph Abraham, Bhupinder Singh and K Binu timed 3:06.65 to miss the Gold by a whisker while Saudi Arabia topped the chart with a season best of 3:05.31 Aboo Backer give a poor start and Bhupinder made matter worse before Binu ran a superb race not only to edge out Sri Lankans but the Japanese also from the second slot.

Joseph Mathew, running after Backer and Binu, saved the day for India, otherwise at one stage it looked as they may not even get the Bronze. Earlier, 23-year old Kerala runner Sinimole Paulse finished third in 1500m with a time of 4:15.09 in a race which was won by favourite Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain (4:08.63), followed by Japan's Yuriko Kobayashi (4:14.96).

Sinimole had earlier finished fifth in 800m race in which she had clocked her personal best of 2:03.76.

Though Sinimole could not match 1500m own best of 4:14.7 today, still it was a very determined effort by the dimunitive runner who showed no sign of awe while running along side the best of the continent.

Meanwhile, India's medal hopes in women's 4x400m relay were shattered when the quartet of Jyothi Manjunath, Deepthi Jose, Nidhi and Poonam Tomar clocked season's best of 46.29 only to finish fifth.

The Indians lost the medal because of their technical fault. They had a false start and were warned and that effected their next start which was bit late and that made all the difference.

Chinese athletes took the Gold with a season best timing of 44.33, followed by Japan (44.67) and Chinese Taipei (45.86).

In women's pole vault, V S Surekha finished sixth among seven athletes with a below-par performance as she could only clear 3.80.

Surekha's personal best is 4.08 but this evening she failed all in her three efforts to clear the 4.00m mark.

China won the Gold through Gao Shtuying (4.30) in the event, followed by Malaysia's Samsu Roslinda (4.30) and Japan;s Ikuko Mishikori (4.15).

In men's 5000m race, the Indian duo of Sunil Kumar and Surender Kumar Singh clocked personal best timings but yet finished fifth and sixth respectively among 13 runners. Sunil returned 13:58.80 while Surender Kumar Singh clocked 13.59.05.

Qatar's James Kwalia Kurui Kurui took the Gold in 13:38.90, folowed by M Salem Jawher of Bahrain (13:41.10) and Sultan Khamis Zaman of Qatar (13:45.91).

In Triple Jump, India's Ranjeeth Maheswary finished fourth with a personal best of 16.54 which he achieved in fourth attempt.

China's Li Yanxi took the gold at 17.06, followed by Kazhakstan's Roman Valiyev (16.98) and Kim Deok Hyeon (16.87) UNI HSB AY PM2224