The Hindu : Sport : Gold for Hamza, Sinimole

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Thursday, Nov 01, 2007
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Gold for Hamza, Sinimole

Sandeep Sejwal takes his second silver

— File photo: R. Ragu

GOLDEN RUN: Sinimole Paulose won the 1500m in the Asian Indoor Games.

Macau: Chatholi Hamza and Sinimole Paulose added to India’s gold medal tally with victories in the men’s and women’s 1500 metres respectively on the second day of athletics action in the Asian Indoor Games here on Wednesday.

Swimmer Sandeep Sejwal swelled it further by taking his second silver of the Games. India has a haul of five gold and three silver medals so far with three gold medals having come from chess earlier.

Hamza set a Games record of 3:50.22 seconds while beating defending champion Ali Babubaker Kamal of Qatar. The 25-year-old Armyman had taken the bronze in the World Military Games in Hyderabad and had posted the second sub-3:40 timing by an Indian while winning the Open National title in Jamshedpur, thus projecting himself as a medal contender here.

Good form

Sinimole has been in good form this season, especially in the metric mile, following up her wins in the Asian Grand Prix series with an effortless victory in the Asian championships in Amman. She had won the bronze in the last edition of the Asian Indoor Games, but on Wednesday she had little challenge while winning in 4:22.56.

In the men’s 400m, however, India returned empty-handed as both Bibin Mathew and Vinay Chaudhary failed to make it to the final, finishing fourth in their respective semifinals. Only six athletes make it to the final.

The women’s 400 metre runners, Sini Jose and M.R. Poovamma had also failed to progress to the final on Tuesday.

P.J. Vinod was in the lead after four events with a tally of 3175 points, ahead of Pavel Dubitskiy of Kazakhstan (3027), in men’s heptathlon in the Asian Indoor Games here on Wednesday.

In a five-man field, the 28-year-old Kerala athlete who finished fourth in the Asian championships in Amman, won the 60 metres (7.02s), long jump (7.18m) and shot put (13.86m) and came second to Dubitskiy (2.06m) in high jump with 1.91 metres.

The 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1000 metres will form the second day’s card in heptathlon.

Sajeesh Joseph (1:56.57) and Ramesan Rajeev (1:57.11) won their respective heats in the men’s 800 metres on way to Thursday’s final, while Sinimole (2:13.68) and A. Vijila (2:15.76) came second in their heats in the women’s 800 metres. They also made the final.

India’s 4x400m men’s relay team qualified for the final, coming second in its heat with a time of 3:20.08.

Thailand won the heat in 3:18.15, while in the other heat Saudi Arabia (3:13.67) and Sri Lanka (3:13.76) came under the Games record.

Sejwal second

In the swimming pool, India struck another medal through Sandeep Sejwal.

The Delhi boy, who had won the silver in the 100m breaststroke event earlier, claimed the second place in the 50m breaststroke final on Wednesday, clocking 28.41s behind Iranian Mohammed Alirezaei Dizicheh (28.35).

India had a disappointing day otherwise in swimming with Shikha Tandon (30.50s) finishing seventh in the women’s 50m backstroke final and Rehan Poncha ending last in the men’s 100m butterfly final with a time of 56.00s.

The Chinese winner, Zhou Jiawei clocked 51.91s.

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