The Hindu : Sport : Santhi opens India's tally in athletics

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Sunday, Dec 10, 2006
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Santhi opens India's tally in athletics

Kamesh Srinivasan

Sinimole Paulose finishes fifth in 800m; Uzbek Khubbieva clinches the women's 100m gold

— Photo: AFP

FLAT OUT: India's S. Santhi edged out Viktoriya Yalovtseva of Kazakhstan by 0.03 seconds to clinch the silver in the women's 800m.

DOHA: S. Santhi won the 800 metres silver behind the outstanding favourite Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain to open India's medal hunt in athletics, at the Khalifa Stadium here on Saturday.

Yahya Hassan Habeeb of Saudi Arabia and Guzel Khubbieva of Uzbekistan hogged the limelight by winning the blue riband 100 metres for men and women respectively.

Santhi, the 25-year-old from Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, clocked 2:03.16 to pip Viktoriya Yalovtseva of Kazakhstan by 0.03 seconds. Though she could not touch her career-best 2:02.21, Santhi raced hard to leave behind three others who were in hot pursuit, including compatriot Sinimole Paulose who took the fifth place with 2:03.76.

Chinese fare badly

Other leading contenders like Miho Sugimori of Japan and Liu Qing of China were unable to live up to their reputations and finished sixth and eighth respectively.

"Though I was slow in the first lap, I was very confident in the final. It was a great feeling to have lots of Indian supporters,'' said Santhi.

Maryam, more known for her exploits in 1500 metres so far, said that she ran with a plan. She also wanted to have a go at the golds in the 1500 and 5000 events. "I will try my best in both events,'' Maryam said.

In the women's 100 metres, the 30-year-old Uzbek Khubbieva beat Susanthika Jayasinghe by 0.07 seconds to clinch the gold.

In the men's 100 metres, the former World youth silver medallist, Hassan Habeeb of Saudi Arabia beat Naoki Tsukahara of Japan to the gold by 0.02 seconds.

Pinki qualifies

In the women's 400m heats, Pinki Paramanik qualified by coming second in her heat with a 53.90 behind Olga Tereshkova of Kazakhstan. Manjeet Kaur too made it as the second best from her heat with timing of 53.95.

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