The Hindu : Sport : Navpreet Singh snatches shot put gold

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Sunday, Jul 29, 2007
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Navpreet Singh snatches shot put gold

K. P. Mohan

Preeja adds another silver to her kitty; Poonia bags bronze

Susanthika completes sprint double
P.J. Vinod falls to fourth in decathlon

AMMAN: Navpreet Singh pulled off a stunning 19.70-metre putt to grab the gold on the fourth day of the 17th Asian athletics championships here on Saturday.

India had two other medals this day, a silver from Preeja Sreedharan in the 5000 metres and a bronze by discus thrower Krishna Poonia.

Having missed the whole of the season so far, not many would have expected Navpreet to snatch the gold, but in the event the burly Punjab man who had taken the silver last time in Incheon, produced a series of excellent throws to dominate the field.

The Indian struck gold with his second throw and he had two throws of 19.68to end the competition. He had one of 19.47 and 19.23 as well. Till the last moment, Navpreet’s inclusion in the team itself was debated since he had not competed at all. It was on the strength of the chief coach, Bahadur Singh’s assertion that he had been doing 19-metre plus in training that he was eventually chosen. Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ming-Huang claimed the silver (19.66) while Khaled Habash Al-Suwaidi of Qatar who was the favourite ended up with the bronze with 19.51. India’s Saurabh Vij finished sixth with 17.49.

Preeja won her second silver medal of the 17th Asian championships, coming second to Bahrain’s Kareema Saleh Jassem in the 5000 metres here on Saturday. She had earlier finished second in the 10,000 metres.

Like in the 10,000 metres, it was a foregone conclusion who will win the medals. In a four-woman field, Jassem clocked 16:40.87, Preeja 16:56.16 and North Korean Kim Mi Gyong 18:21.32.

Predictable medal

Krishna Poonia’s bronze was predictable. Since Neelam J. Singh won the Busan Asian Games gold, the Chinese have been generally dominating women’s discus and they showed, even with two second-rung throwers, their depth in the event.

Xu Shaoyang won with 61.30, followed by team-mate Li Yanfeng (61.13) and Poonia (55.38). India’s other entry, Harwant Kaur, ended up fourth with only 52.43.

P.J. Vinod slipped badly in javelin, the ninth event and from his second position fell to the fourth in decathlon. Despite a great attempt in the final event, 1500 metres, the Kerala man could not gain a medal though he had the satisfaction of compiling a personal best of 7441 points for the fourth place. His previous best was 7382 that he had in the Federation Cup in Delhi last year. Jora Singh finished sixth and last with 7024 points.

Jora, National record holder (7502) was looking forward to World championships and Olympics qualification with 7700 points.

Vinod had regained the second spot after a strong showing in pole vault (4.70m) but could manage only manage 45.11 in javelin for a total of 6799 points. Ahead of him at that time were Iranian Hadi Seppehrzad (7122), Qatari Ahmed Moussa (7029)and Uzbek Pavel Andreev (6799).

The Iranian finished the 1500 metres poorly and allowed Moussa to win the gold with 7678. The Iranian had 7667 while Andreev’s bronze came in 7484.

Sprint double

Sri Lankan Susanthika Jayasinghe expectedly completed the sprint double, winning the 200 metres in 22.99 secs to add to the 100m gold she had won earlier. Teammate Sujani Budhika was second with 23.28. Japanese Kenji Fujimitsu won the men’s 200m.

Meanwhile, official results made available on Saturday showed Anju George’s silver-winning jump of 6.65m on Friday as having a wind-speed of 1.3m/s only. It was given out as 4.3m/s initially. If this is certified as correct then Anju has made the grade (6.60m) for the Osaka World championships.

The results:

Men: 200m: 1. Kenji Fujimitsu (Jpn) 20.85, 2. Alwaleed Abdullah (Qat) 20.98, 3. Khalil Hahanahneh (Jor) 21.03; 800m: 1. Mohammed Obeid Al-Salhi (KSA) 1:51.73, 2. Sajjad Moradi (Iri) 1:52.22, 3. Abubaker Ali Kamal (Qa t) 1: 52.22, 5. Rajeev Ramesan (Ind) 1:55.16, 8. Francis Sagayaraj (Ind) 2:02.43;

Shot put: 1. Navpreet Singh (Ind) 19.70, 2. Chang Ming-Huang (Tpe) 19.66, 3. Khaled Habash Al-Suwaidi (Qat) 19.51; Decathlon: 1. Ahmed Hassan Moussa (Qat) 7678,2. Hadi Sepehrzad (Iri) 7667, 3. Pavel Andreev (Uzb) 7484.

Women: 200m: Susanthika Jayasinghe (Sri) 22.99, 2. Sujani Budhika (Sri) 23.28, 3. Vu Thi Huong (Vie) 23.30; 5000m: 1. Kareema Saleh Jassem (Brn) 16:40.87, 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Ind) 16:56.16, 3. Kim Mi Gyong (PRK) 18 :21.32;

High jump: 1. Tatyana Effimenko (Kgz) 1.94 (equal meet record), 2. Yeketerina Yeveseyeva (Kaz) 1.91, 3. Anna Ustinova (Kaz) 1.91; Triple jump: 1. Olga Rypakova (Kaz) 14.69 (NMR, previous 14.39), 2. Sha Li (Chn) 14.03 , 3. Irina Litvinenko (Kaz) 13.80; Discus: 1. Xu Shaoyang (Chn) 61.30, 2. Li Yanfeng (Chn) 61.13, 3 Krishna Poonia (Ind) 55.38, 4. Harwant Kaur (Ind) 52.43.

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