— PHOTO: AFP

ENTERING FINAL: Japan's Miho Sugimori (left) and India's S. Santhi qualified for the women's 800m final on Friday.

DOHA: Zhang Wenxiu of China rewrote her own Asian record with a throw of 74.15 in hammer as the track and field warmed up on a rainy day at the Khalifa Stadium here on Friday. The 20-year-old Chinese had an earlier mark of 73.24 set last year back home at Changsha.

She faced little competition from compatriot Gu Yuan (65.13) or Aya Masumi (62.67) who had to settle for the silver and bronze.

"This is my first Asian Games medal. I am so excited about it. Before the Games I didn't think that I could set a new record. But, I am up to that standard'', said Zhang.

Hardeep Kaur finished with a 56.41 with her fifth throw and was nowhere in contention for a medal.

Preeja Sreedharan ran a national record 33 minutes 48.45 seconds for the 10,000 metres, but was placed fifth. She had set a mark of 34:11.45 in October in Delhi.

Fukushi wins gold

Kayoko Fukushi of Japan won the gold comfortably ahead of Kareema Saleh Jasim of Bahrain. The expected fight from Xi Qiuhong of China did not really materialize while compatriot Hiromi Ominami had to be content with the bronze.

In the 3000 metres steeplechase, Tareq Mubarak Salem of Bahrain beat Gamal Belal Salem of Qatar in a battle of two Kenyans fighting for their adopted countries.

In heptathlon, the Indian hopes of two medals looked doubtful, as J. J. Shobha and Soma Biswas were doing well only more on the track, in a field of seven athletes.

Good show

Both Soma and Shobha won their 100-metre hurdles to start with, with timings of 14.17 and 14.15 respectively. However, Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan showed her class in high jump, by going over 1.92 metres. Soma cleared 1.62 and Shobha had to be content at 1.50.

The Indian women shot back in shot put, by placing second and third respectively. Shobha threw 13.10 to take her tally to 2314 points, while Soma covered 12.66 metres to take her tally to 2418 points. The gap was bridged after the 200 metres. Soma won her race at 25.15 to be placed third with a cumulative score of 3291 points, behind Rypakova (3589) and Irina Naumenko (3331) of Kazakhstan.

Shobha won her race in 200 metres with a 25.00 to take her tally to 3201 points that put her in the sixth place.Watcharaporn Masim (3249) of Thailand and Yuki Nakata (3235) of Japan were at No.4 and 5 respectively.

In men's long jump, Shiv Shankar Yadav leaped 7.51 metres with his first jump and qualified for the final.

In the women's 800 metres, S. Santhi won the first 800-metre heat with a timing of 2:08.62. The 25-year-old pipped Thi Bong Do of Vietnam by 0.02 seconds at the post. Sinimole Paulose qualified from the second heat, running second behind favourite Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain with a timing of 2:10.16.

The best timing was returned by Viktoriya Yalovtseva of Kazakhstan as she clocked 2:04.70 in the third heat of the 800 metres.

In the men's 1500 metres, there was some cheer for the Indian camp as Hamza Chatholi clocked 3:44.35 and made the cut for the final as one of the four fastest losers in the two heats.

Defending champion Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain won his heat with a 3:42.62, nealry a second ahead of his main rival, Abubaker Ali Kamal of Qatar.

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