ASIAN ATHLETICS Gold for Manpreet, Gowda bags bronze

Dutee Chand cruised into the semifinals of the women’s 100m by clocking 11.40 seconds in the qualifying round to emerge the fastest

Woman shot putter Manpreet Kaur won the gold medal with a throw of 18.28 metres on the opening day of the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships while Vikas Gowda grabbed bronze in the men’s discus throw event on Thursday.

Kaur also qualified for the World Championship in London by virtue of being the Asian champion.

Kaur, who turned 27 on Thursday, upstaged defending champion China’s Guo Tianqian to give herself a perfect birthday gift at the packed Kalinga Stadium.

Tianqian took the silver with a throw of 17.91m while Aya Ota of Japan got the bronze with 15.45m.

Manpreet, who returned to the circuit last year after taking some time off due to the birth of a child, said she was happy to have crossed the 18m mark. “This is my second best throw of my career and I am very happy for this performance. Before the event, I told myself that I should go beyond the 18m mark and anything extra beyond that would be satisfied,” she said after having a lap of honour of the Kalinga Stadium.

The experienced Gowda, a last minute entry into the squad, won bronze medal in the men’s discus throw event with a best effort of 60.81m.

Ehsan Haddadi of Iran took the gold with a throw of 64.54m while Malaysia’s Muhammad Irfan claimed the silver with 60.96m. In previous two Asian Athletics Championships, Gowda had won gold.

Dutee Chand cruised into the semifinals of the 100m women category. The sprinter clocked 11.40 seconds in the qualifying round to emerge the fastest.

Muhammed Anas, Rajiv Arokia and Amoj Jacob showed impressive performance to enter into the semis of the men’s 400m event.

Arokia qualified as the best finisher in the preliminary round after winning the second heat with a timing of 46.42secs while national record holder Anas was second in the first heat in 46.70 seconds. The third Indian Amoj Jacob also qualified by winning the third heat with a timing of 47.09secs.

In the women’s 1,500m, India’s Chitra P.U. and Monika Chaudhary qualifying for the semi-finals from Heat 2 and 1, respectively.

Ajay Kumar Saroj and Siddhanta Adhikari made into the final rounds of men’s 1500m event clocking 3:51.37 and 3:57.46 in first and second heats respectively.