The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Women's relay team earns bronze; China way ahead of rest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Women's relay team earns bronze; China way ahead of rest

MACAU: The women's longer relay team managed just the bronze medal on the final day as India wound up a most disappointing campaign in the 12th Asian junior athletics championships here on Tuesday.

China topped the medals table with 23 gold — seven more than the last occasion — 11 silver and five bronze while Japan came second with a total haul of 25 medals including six gold. Qatar was third with seven medals, including three gold.

For India, which ended up with just one silver and four bronze medals — its poorest ever showing in the championships — the last medal came through the 4x400m relay team comprising Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose, Jose Anu Mariam and M.R. Poovamma. The team should have been a sure bet for the silver, but finished behind China and Thailand with a time of 3:45.36. Unofficial splits showed Mandeep at 56.7, Sini 55.0, Anu 57.7 and Poovamma 55.2.

Men's team disappoints

The men's 4x400m relay team of V. B. Bineesh, R. Bangaraiah, Bibin Mathew and Virender Kumar Pankaj had held out hope for even the gold, according to chief coach Suresh Babu but shockingly finished outside the medals bracket. Bineesh and Mathew ran poor legs and even though Pankaj tried his best on the anchor, it was an impossible task. The team finished fourth in 3:14.07 behind Japan, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

The rest of the Indian performances on the final day proved dismal. Ravinder (3:56.62) and P. Trinath (4:03.89) came fifth and eighth in the men's 1500 metres and Jhuma Khatun (4:38.42) and N.C. Mohanal (4:45.89) finished fifth and sixth in the women's 1500 metres.

Mukesh Beniwal (13.17) and Manpreet Kaur (12.41) were sixth and ninth in women's shot put while Shilpa Chauhan ended fifth in women's hammer throw with 46.93 metres.

Shilpa Sunder, who was disqualified in the heptathlon 200 metres on Monday, did not resume on the final day.

India had finished ninth overall with one gold, two silver and four bronze medals in the last championships held at Ipoh, Malaysia in 2004. This time India placed 14th in the medals tally.

The results: Men: 1500m: 1. Kamal Ali Thamer (Qat) 3:49.74, 2. Daiki Sato (Jpn) 3:50.89, 3. Mohammadsaieh Rostami (Iri) 3:55.62; 110m hurdles: 1. Huang Hao (Chn) 13.64, 2. Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian (Mas) 13.84, 3. Yan Xu (Chn) 13.99; Triple jump: 1. Mohamed Salman (Brn) 15.88, 2. Varunyoo Kongnil (Tha) 15.57, 3. Nguyen Manh Hieu (Vie) 15.09; 4x100m relay: 1. Thailand 40.30, 2. Oman 40.56, 3. Chinese Taipei 40.67; 4x400m relay: 1. Japan 3:10.09, 2. Saudi Arabia 3:11.46, 3. Thailand 3:13.51; 10,000m walk: 1. Bai Xuejin (Chn) 43:48.91, 2. Hiroyuki Hirano (Jpn) 45:43.66, 3. Yusuke Suzuki (Jpn) 47:06.99.

Women: 1500m: 1. Akane Ohta (Jpn) 4:30.16, 2. Liu Fang (Chn) 4:30.17, 3. Aki Matsunaga (Jpn) 4:31.09; 100m hurdles: 1. Zhang Hongpei (Chn) 14.09, 2. Natalya Asanova (Uzb) 14.24, 3. Azizah Ibrahim (Mas) 14.59; Shot put: 1. Li Li (Chn) 16.78, 2. Oksana Kot (Uzb) 14.94, 3. Hung Pai Chu (Tpe) 14.35; Hammer: 1. Wang Zheng (Chn) 60.16, 2. Wang Yang (Chn) 59.33, 3. Galina Mityaeva (Tjk) 52.55; Heptathlon: 1. Wei Xiaobin (Chn) 4968, 2. Olga Lapina (Kaz) 4882, 3. Anastasya Kudinova (Kaz) 4734; 4x100m relay: 1. China 44.95, 2. Japan 45.66, 3. Thailand 46.49; 4x400m relay: 1. China 3:40.37, 2. Thailand 3:44.61, 3. India 3:45.36.