Sport   

Preeja grabs a silver in 10,000m

— FILE PHOTO

Preeja Sreedharan.

AMMAN: Sinimole Paulose, favourite to claim a double, tamely lost to little-known Vietnamese Truong Thanh Hang in the final of the 800m on the second day of the Asian athletics championships here on Thursday.

Sinimole could not respond to the feeble kick of the Vietnamese on the home straight and just followed her rival to the finish-line in 2:06.15. The Vietnamese clocked 2:04.77. Japanese Jinouchi Ayako came third.

Chinese Cui Zhide won the men’s 20km walk on the second day while team-mate Liu Xiangrui claimed the women’s shot put title with 17.65m.

Indians Chitra Soman and Manjeet Kaur went through to the final of the women’s 400 m in contrasting styles. Chitra clocked the best in two heats, winning her heat in 53.60s, ahead of Japanese Asami Tanno (53.67s) while Manjeet, who holds the national record at 51.05s, timed 55.70s in coming second behind Chinese Zhai Lin (55.33s). Joseph Abraham (50.91s) and Kuldev Singh (51.92s, one of the best losers) qualified for the finals of the 400m hurdles on Thursday afternoon. Japanese Yoshikata Masahira topped the qualifiers with 50.60s.

Preeja Sreedharan earned for India its first medal, the silver in the women’s 10,000m, in late evening action on Wednesday.

In a three-woman field, the medals were more or less decided even before the race began, with Bahrain’s Kareema Saleh Jasim, the silver winner at the Doha Asian Games, clearly a cut above the Indian and North Korean Kim Mi Gyong.

Kareema coasted to a 34:26.39 victory while Preeja clocked one of her poorest in recent months in coming more than one and a half minutes behind the Bahrainian. The 26-year-old Kerala woman, who had clocked a national record of 33:19.71 at Kolkata during the Federation Cup in May, timed 36: 04.54.

Understandably, the heat and the altitude of 700m that Amman is perched at, proved handicaps for the distance runners. In Preeja’s case, once she realised that a chase was not on against a superior adversary, who has a best of 32:17.14, she was content to aim for the silver, her first medal at the Asian level.

Chinese Bai Xue, who won the distance double at the last championships in Incheon, Korea, was a last-minute pull out, paving the way for the Bahrainian and Indian to win the gold and silver untroubled.

Other Indian athletes fared rather disappointingly. Chatholi Hamza, despite a valiant chase from about 230m out to the finish, ended up fourth in the 1500m that turned out to be a slow, tactical race. Hamza clocked 3:49.11, content to hang on rather than force the pace and eventually stepping it up on the back-straight when he found that the others could kick harder.

Saudi Arabian Mohammed Othman Shaween won in 3:46.85, with Iranian Sajjad Moradi edging defending champion Ali Abubaker Kamal of Qatar at the finish for the silver.

Hammer thrower Nirbhay Singh (62.54m) was seventh while high jumper Hari Sankar Roy who narrowly missed clearance at 2.21m was fifth with 2.18m.

J. J. Shobha (3179) and Susmita Singha Roy (3125) were on course for medals at the end of the opening day’s events in heptathlon Kazakh Irina Naumenko (3506) led the four-woman field.

The results: Men: 20km walk: 1. Cui Zhide (Chn) 1:30:21.30, 2. Shin Il-Yong (Kor) 1:31:33.42, 3. Rustom Kuwalov (Kaz) 1:32:37.56.

Stories in this Section



Criticism of middle order inevitable: Dravid
India’s bowlers may hold the key
Of myths and men
Preeja grabs a silver in 10,000m


Cricket

ACA to push for Test status for Vizag
Twenty20 World Cup formally launched
Rajnikant stars in Indian Bank’s win
Durga Prasad hits century
India u-19 defeats Bangladesh
It felt as much as a victory: Vaughan
Davinder, Mohita top seeded


Tennis

Andy Roddick enters quarterfinals
Aqeel crashes out
Bopanna beats Burgsmuller


Hockey

Pakistan to participate in Asia Cup
Big win for BFHC
Bangalore City dominates
Nehru tournaments


Athletics

Francis shatters Asian 100m record


Badminton

Qualifiers spotted


Basketball

Chirec PS routs St. Joseph’s


Chess

Humpy to play in Abu Dhabi
Hari in joint second spot


Golf

LG Noida Open: four share lead
Lahiri still in the lead


Racing : Horse

It’s Bhangra Knight vs. Glaring Godzilla
Coral Gables wins feature event
Heavy rains curtail opening day’s races
Hugo Boss for Commoner Trophy
Green Bax excels


Racing : Motor

JK Tyre Rotax Max karting challenge


Sports : General

Jyothi scores a hat-trick for Krishna
Khurshid Jha in last four
Easy for HPS
Masters pairs bridge
Suresh Kumar bags bronze
Pistorius agrees to IAAF testing
JJ, Jayaram in final
Anuragh and Navneeth shine
PSG CAS bags double


Squash

Parth Sharma and Naresh Kumar are champions


Table Tennis

Indian teams fall in quarterfinals
Anjana upsets Ruthu
Jagriti Virmani in last four


Cycling

Daniele Bennati wins 17th stage

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu