The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Harwant, Maha, Anil bag gold medals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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Sport - Athletics

Harwant, Maha, Anil bag gold medals

SINGAPORE: Maha Singh was just a centimetre short of the magical eight-metre mark in long jump as Indian athletes continued their medal-winning spree in the Asian Grand Prix circuit on Tuesday.

In the second meet of the circuit, the Indians, led by Maha Singh, grabbed three gold, three silver and seven bronze medals. They had won two gold, three silver and six bronze medals in the first meet at Sidoarjo, Indonesia, on June 18. The third and last leg will be held at Songkhla on June 24.

Woman discus thrower Harwant Kaur and sprinter Anil Kumar were the other Indians who won gold medals, while shot putter Navpreet Singh, javelin thrower Jagdish Bishnoi and woman quarter-miler Sathi Geetha won the silver medals.

Outstanding

Twentyfour-year-old Maha Singh had been shaping to breach the eight-metre mark right from the start of this season. He had a career-best 7.91m in the second circuit meet at Patiala and now has improved upon that performance, by leaping to 7.99. The wind-speeds were not available, but going by any yardstick this was an outstanding show, outstripping his effort in the first leg, when he had won with 7.89. Only three Indians have crossed 8.00, National record holder Amritpal Singh (8.08m), T. C. Yohannan (8.07m) and Sanjay Kumar Rai (8.03m).

As at Sidoarjo, Chinese Song Jian led the jumpers initially, with an opening-round 7.83m while Filipino Henry Dagmil tucked himself into the second spot with a fourth-round jump of 7.75m. At the far-away long jump pit, with no spectators to cheer them, the athletes had to pep themselves up and Maha Singh responded with 7.99 and this turned out to be the winning mark. The Chinese fouled four of his attempts.

Unexpected

Anil Kumar's 100m triumph was as unexpected as was Indonesian John Herman Muray's in the first leg. The Indian clocked a modest 10.51s to edge the Indonesian while another Indian, Piyush Kumar won the bronze in 10.63s. The shock yet again was the fourth place by Kazakh Gennadiy Chernovol in 10.71s.

The Indian woman discus throwers, without the most consistent performer, Neelam J. Singh here, had looked down and beaten the other day at Sidoarjo. On Tuesday, there was a complete transformation. There was a dramatic jump in standards.

Harwant Kaur, with only a 56.50 to back her up this season, touched 62.89m, the best by an Indian this season, on her fifth throw to edge Chinese Song Aimin (62.16m) for the top spot. Krishna Poonia was close to her best with 58.01m for her bronze while Seema Antil threw to a personal season best of 56.96m for the fourth place.

The surprise for the Indian camp, this time because of a slump, was the silver by shot putter Navpreet Singh. Having touched 19-metre-plus on five of his attempts, while winning with a 19.60m in the first leg, Navpreet could have been expected to win again. But on Tuesday he could not touch 19 metres even once.

The results: Men: 100m: 1. Anil Kumar (Ind) 10.51s, 2. John Herman Muray (Ina) 10.52, 3. Piyush Kumar (Ind) 10.63; 400m: 1. Sampati Amarasekara (Sri) 46.09s, 2. Rohan Pradeep Kumara (Sri) 46.19, 3. Bhupinder Singh (Ind) 47.83; 800m: 1. Moradi Sadjad (Iri) 1:47.11, 2. Ehsan Mohajershojaei (Iri) 1:47.59, 3. Mohamed Mutalk (Kuw) 1:47.93. 110m hurdles: 1. Wu Youjia (Chn) 13.74s, 2. Suphan Wongsriphuck (Tha) 14.29, 3. Krishna Mohan (Ind) 14.37; long jump: 1. Maha Singh (Ind) 7.99m, 2. Song Jian (Chn) 7.83, 3. Henry Dagmil (Phi) 7.75; shotput: 1. Zhang Qi (Chn) 19.78m, 2. Navpreet Singh (Ind) 18.73, 3. Ranvijay Singh (Ind) 18.08; javelin: 1. Li Rongxiang (Chn) 74.31m, 2. Jagdish Bishnoi (Ind) 73.07, 3. Park Jae-Myong (Kor) 72.16.

Women: 100m: 1. Lyubov Perepelova (Uzb) 11.57s, 2. Guzel Khubbieva (Uzb) 11.82, 3. Poonam Tomar (Ind) 11.83; 400m: 1. Tatyana Roslanova (Kaz) 51.89s, 2. Sathi Geetha (Ind) 52.91, 3. Asami Tanno (Jpn) 53.23; 1,500m: 1. Tatiana Borisova (Kgz) 4:15.26, 2. Svetlana Lukasheva (Kaz) 4:15.78, 3. Sunita Rani (Ind) 4:16.72; 400m hurdles: 1. Yao Yuehua (Chn) 56.04s, 2. Natalya Alimzhanova (Kaz) 56.47, 3. Makiko Yoshida (Jpn) 56.67; discus: 1. Harwant Kaur (Ind) 62.89m, 2. Song Aimin (Chn) 62.16, 3. Krishna Poonia (Ind) 58.01.

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