The Hindu : Sport : Hardeep bags silver

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Saturday, Sep 30, 2006
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Hardeep bags silver

K.P. Mohan

Late withdrawals mar the show

NEW DELHI: Late withdrawals by some of the prominent athletes including India's Asian Games medal hopeful shot putter Navpreet Singh spoilt the show somewhat on the first day of the two-day AFI-Salwan International throws competition here on Friday.

Navpreet was reported to be nursing an abductor muscle injury in Patiala, according to the Chief National Coach, Bahadur Singh, but the late pull-out by India's star shot putter made tongues wag. Navpreet had not been in the best of forms of late with an effort of 18.43 metres in the World Cup presenting a rather bleak picture in the Asian Games calculations.

In Navpreet's absence, Satyendra Kumar Singh, a relative newcomer at this level, putted his career best of 18.61m for the bronze. The Railwayman's next best was an 18.22m.

Not unexpectedly, the main contest involved Poland's Tomasz Majewski and Chinese Zhang Qi and the Pole prevailed with a third round throw of 19.83m.

The bespectacled Pole who had touched a personal best of 20.66m at Shanghai last week said that being the last competition of the season he was happy to have won the gold with such an effort. "I did a lot of travelling since I went back to Poland from Shanghai and came over here," said the Polish athlete.

Zhang Qi who touched 19.65m on his second attempt settled for the silver despite a great effort that saw his cross 19.50m twice more.

Withdrawals also marred the men's discus competition with Chinese Wu Tao, the Asian Games champion, and Iranian Abbas Samimi, not turning up.

Gold for Gu Yuan

The women's hammer gold expectedly went to the Asian Games champion from China, Gu Yuan, but the surprise was provided by Hardeep Kaur, who was returning to the competition after a two-year suspension related to a doping violation.

Viewed against Gu Yuan's 65.70m, Hardeep's effort of 61.10m for the silver was nothing much to rave about and yet when one looked at her long absence and just a few months of preparation, this was very creditable. She was just 57cm behind her own National record set in 2002.

Hardeep said that being her first competition after a long gap, she was a little nervous and hence could not produce her best.

The results:

Men: Shot put: 1. Tomasz Majewski (Pol) 19.83m, 2. Zhang Qi (Chn) 19.65m, 3. Satyendra Kumar Singh (Ind) 18.61m. Discus: 1. Michal Hodun (Pol) 57.23m, 2. Andrzej Krawczyk (Pol) 56.85m, 3. Jong Choi Bum (Kor) 56.25m.

Boys (under-20): Shot put: 1. Kulwinder Singh (Del) 17.63m, 2. Sharad Chaudhary (UP) 16.56m, 3. Inderjeet Singh (MP) 16.24m.

Women: Hammer: 1. Gu Yuan (Chn) 65.70m, 2. Hardeep Kaur (Ind) 61. 10m, 3. Katlin Divos (Hun) 59.18m.

Girls (under 20): Shot put: 1. Neelam Jhakar (Har) 13.08m (NMR, previous 10.86m), 2. Neha Singh (UP) 11.72m, 3. Jagadishwari (AP) 10.45m.

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