With no new addition to their overnight tally of nine medals, hosts India remained static at the sixth position on the penultimate day of the 20th Asian Athletics Championships at the Balewadi Sports Complex here in Pune on Saturday.
With finals of four field events and two track events (4x100m relays) scheduled for the day, medal hopes were low and the hosts failed to spring a surprise.
A fourth place finish in the women’s 4x100m relay by S. Sini, Merlin Joseph, Srabani Nanda and Asha Roy was the best performance by the hosts on the day when two new championship records were set by the continental powerhouse China.
Li Lang set a new record in women’s pole vault by clearing 4.54 metres. Later in the evening, Li Lingwei hurled the javelin to a record 60.65 metres to give China their second gold of the day. In a close finish, Sri Lanka’s champion thrower picked up the silver by registering her best of 60.65 metres.
Despite a poor day at the office, there was some cheer in the Indian camp as four athletes qualified for the finals in different events to be held on Sunday.
Satinder Singh clocked 51.20 seconds in the 400m hurdles while in 800m, Manjit Singh (1:49.12s) recorded the second best time as the duo booked their place in the respective finals.
In the women’s 200m heats, Asha Roy (24.01s) finished first and Dutee Chand secured the second place for India in the final after finishing second in another qualifier with a time of 23.76 seconds.
Sushmita Roy, who was leading overnight in Hepthalon, crashed out on Saturday as Thailand’s Wassana Winatho defended her title.
Though Lang’s record was the talking point on the day, there was plenty of drama in the two relay races that produced some edge of the seat contests.
Chinese women sprinters snatched the gold with a time of 44.01 seconds, outpacing Japan (44.38s) and Thailand (44.44s). It was after a gap of 11 years that China picked up the top prize.
The men’s relay action proved to be even more intriguing when the strong Bahrain team crashed out after a false start.
In a stunning show, the Hong Kong sprinters clocked an impressive 38.94 seconds to snatch the gold from defending champions Japan who settled for silver with a time of 39.11 seconds while China got the bronze.
Hammer thrower Dilshod Nazarov picked up the gold with an impressive throw of 78.32 metres, the second farthest in the history of the championships.