Sudha, Prem settle for silver
India secured four medals but the precious gold medal slipped when Bahrain runner Ruth Chebet ran an impressive start-to-finish race clocking 9.40.84 m to set a new championship record in the 3,000 m steeplechase, denying home girl Sudha Singh (9:56.27) a top position.
Chebet broke the heart of many Indians fans on an eventful Day Three of the 20th Asian Championship here where Sudha was expected to win the gold.
In unexpected circumstances, India collected bronze medals in javelin throw courtesy Samarjeet Singh (75.03m) and in the 100m women’s finals hurdles before rising star Prem Kumar secured a silver in long jump. After the four medals on Friday, India’s tally swelled to nine with one gold, three silver and five bronze and the hosts are sixth on the overall tally.
China were placed at the top, with eight golds, three silvers and two bronzes.
The day belonged to Prem Kumar, who kept his cool after an intense battle and secured the silver with a final jump of 7.92. The gold was captured by China’s Wang Jianan, the multi-event specialist, who at 16 is one of the youngest in the meet. Reigning Asian Games gold medalist Sudha Singh, who has already qualified for the World Championship, picked up her third successive silver medal but was not content with her effort.
However, there was something to cheer for as javelin thrower Samarjeet recorded his personal best while Hemasree Jayabal also had a personal best of 14.01 secs. Jayaba, was lucky to have finished third as Hitomi Shimura (JPN) and Anastassiya Pilipenko (KAZ) were disqualified for not acceding to referee’s decision on false starts.
There was disappointment in the 110 m hurdles as Siddhanth Thingalaya finished fourth. The national record holder was slow to start with and missed the fifth hurdle. He was forced to play catch up as Jiang Fan (23), the leading hurdler on the scene, clocked a noteworthy 13.61 secs to win the race while fancied Abdulaziz Almandeel of Kuwait claimed the silver in 13.78s.
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