The Hindu : Sport : Anju, women's relay team win gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 05, 2005

Sport

Sport

Anju, women's relay team win gold

By K.P. Mohan

INCHEON: Anju Bobby George and the women's longer relay team won expected titles to swell India's gold medal tally to four as the 16th Asian athletics championships concluded with China atop the standings here on Sunday.

From its three silver-three bronze collection in Manila two years ago, this was a greatly improved performance by the Indian team as it ended with 13 medals including five silver, two of them on the final day through shot putter Navpreet Singh and women's 800m runner S. Shanthi.

China, though it finished way ahead of the others with 32 medals including 15 gold, had its dominance eroded a little. In Manila, China had won 37 medals including 19 gold.

Obvious favourite

That Anju was the favourite in the long jump event on Sunday afternoon would be stating the obvious. She was expected to win with enough to spare, but as it turned out, Filipino Marestella Torres was just two centimetres behind as she registered a national mark of 6.63. Anju's 6.65 was a centimetre short of her season best, recorded in Helsinki. Japanese Kumiko Ikeda, who has a best of 6.69 this season, came third with 6. 52.

"After the first jump (6.55), I had gone all out," Anju said later. "There is no excitement in winning with 6.50 or 6.60. Of course a gold is a gold and I am happy."

Anju had a series of 6.55, foul, 6.50, 6.65, 6.61 and foul. Torres's silver-winning effort came on her fifth jump. She fouled the last one.

"We were looking for something around 6.75-6.80," said Anju's husband and coach Bobby George. "But she has clinched a place in the Asian team to next year's World Cup and her ranking should now go up to seventh to give her an automatic place in the World Athletics finals (September 9-10) in Monaco," he added.

Tough contest

In a tough shot put contest, Navpreet Singh led in the fifth round with 19.40 only to be overhauled by Qatari Khaled Al-Suwaidi, Asian record) holder (20.54m, with a 19.45. The 27-year-old Punjab man had one last shy that he thought had won him the gold, but it was only 19.39. Veteran Shakti Singh could manage only the seventh place with 17.88.

The women's relay team was the odds on favourite after Manjeet and Geetha took gold and silver in the individual 400 metres. The team led from leg two onwards and never gave a chance to the rest. That two of the girls, Rajwinder Kaur and Chitra Soman were nursing injuries was not evident the way they ran. Geetha and Manjeet, the latter on anchor, completed the line-up that timed 3:30.93 for a meet record. The National record stands at 3:26.89.

Shanthi, on her debut, could not have done better than what she did on Sunday. The Tamil Nadu girl put in a strong finish for a personal best 2:04.01 for the 800m silver behind Japanese Miho Sugimori who was far too ahead for anyone to chase and clocked 2:01.84. The Japanese thus completed the middle distance double.

National record holder Kulwinder Singh (7157 points) and Jora Singh (7032) did very creditably to finish fifth and sixth in the decathlon.

Bounces back

Saudi Arabia bounced back in the standings with gold medals by Hamed Al-Bishi in the men's 200 metres and Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily in the 400-metre hurdles and also looked to have clinched a hard-earned gold in the men's 4x400m relay, but was disqualified for a lane cutting violation. That brought India up from fourth place to the bronze position. India finished fifth in the 4x100m relay.

The results: Men: 200m: 1. Hamed Al-Bishi (KSA) 20.66, 2. Tatsuro Yoshino (Jpn) 20.68, 3. Yang Yaozu (Chn) 20.85. 800m: Majid Saeed Sultan (Qat) 1:44.27 (NMR, previous 1:46.20), 2. Abdulrahman Suleiman (Qat) 1:44.73, 3. Sadjad Moradi (Iri) 1:44.74. 5,000m: 1. James Kwalia Chepkurui (Qat) 14:08.56, 2. Daham Najm Bashir (Qat) 14:15.92, 3. Wu Wen-Chien (Tpe) 14:32.43. 400m hurdles: 1. Haadi Al-Somaily (KSA) 49.16, 2. Yevgeniy Melshenko (Kaz) 49.18, 3. Zhang Shibao (Chn) 49.65. High jump: 1. Manjula Kumara Wijesekara (Sri) 2.27, 2. Naoyuki Daigo (Jpn) 2.23, 3. Zhang Shufeng (Chn) 2.23. Shot put: 1. Khaled Al-Suwaidi (Qat) 19.45, 2. Navpreet Singh (Ind) 19.40, 3. Zhang Qi (Chn) 19.02. Decathlon: 1. Pavel Andreev (Uzb) 7744 pts, 2. Kim Kun Woo (Kor) 7694, 3. Hiromasa Tanaka (Jpn) 7351. 4x100m relay: 1. Japan 39.10, 2. Thailand 39.23, 3. Saudi Arabia 39.25. 4x400m relay: 1. Japan 3:03.51, 2. Sri Lanka 3:04.12, 3. India 3:07.45.

Women: 200m: 1. Damayanthi Darsha (Sri) 23.21, 2. Guzel Khubbieva (Uzb) 23.43, 3. Ni Xiaoli (Chn) 23.58. 800m: 1. Miho Sugimori (Jpn) 2:01.84, 2. S. Shanthi (Ind) 2:04.01, 3. Zamira Amirova (Uzb) 2:04.22. 400m hurdles: 1. Huang Xiaoxiao (Chn) 55.63 (NMR, previous 55.66), 2. Norseela Mohammed Khalid (Mas) 56.39, 3. Makiko Yoshida (Jpn) 56.85. Long jump: 1. Anju Bobby George (Ind) 6.65m, 2. Maerstella Torres (Phi) 6.63, 3. Kumiko Ikeda (Jpn) 6.52. Javelin: 1. Park Ho Hyun (Kor) 55.58, 2. Lee Young Sun (Kor) 55.29, 3. Anne Maheshi De Silva (Sri) 54.86. 4x100m relay: 1. Thailand 44.18, 2. China 44.24, 3. Japan 44.85. 4x400m relay: 1. India 3:30.93 (NMR, previous 3:31.30), 2. Kazakhstan 3:32.61, 3. Japan 3:33.54.