AJAI MASAND
JAKARTA: A day after Tajinderpal Singh struck gold in shot put with an Asian Games record, three runners — quartermilers Muhammed Anas and Hima Das and 100m sprinter Dutee Chand — provided the silver lining at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex here on Sunday.
The medals could well have had been gold had three Bahraini imports from African nations not spoilt the party. The Indians gave it all but ultimately had to succumb to the superiority of the African athletes, some of them medal winners at World Championships.
However, the day belonged to sprinter Dutee Chand, who has been battered by allegations of hyperandrogenism, a condition characterised by excessive levels of androgens --- male sex hormones in the female body.
The sprinter had got a major relief after the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne suspended the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) hyperandrogenism regulations for six months.
NOT HER PERSONAL BEST BUT GOOD ENOUGH
Competing in a field that had the likes of Edidiong Odiong, a top Bahrain athlete of African origin, Dutee timed 11:32, not quite her personal best, which is 11:24 set at Almaty in 2016. But it was good enough for silver.
Had the Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) controversial policy of allowing non-asian athletes to compete for Asian countries not been there, Dutee would have been on top of the podium. Odiong timed 11:30, just .02 second ahead of the Indian.
India sprint queen PT Usha had won a silver medal at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi with a timing of 11:67 seconds, while at the 1986 Games in Seoul she had an identical timing on way to silver. Dutee won the ‘prized medal’ for India after a gap of 32 years.
The trend of Indian athletes being dominated by Bahraini athletes of African origin continued in both the women’s and men’s
quarter-mile events where Guwahati’s Hima Das and Kerala’s Muhammed Anas too had to settle for silver after Bahrain’s Naser Salwa, born in Nigeria, and Qatar’s Hassan Abdalelah, from Sudan, won the events.
While Anas timed 45.69, Hima clocked 50.79, which was a national record. The Guwahati sprinter has improved the national record twice in two days --- first in the semi-final heat and then in the final on Sunday.
Hima said she was “satisfied with the performance” and a silver was a “good effort”.
Anas, whose personal best is 45.24, a national record, clocked 45.69, just .80 second off the gold medallist from Qatar. Anas said he was not too sure of competing in 200 metres. “The two races ---heats and semis --- have taken a toll on my body. I’m unlikely to compete in 200m, although I will compete in the mixed relay event,” said Anas.
‘RAN WITH MY EYES CLOSED’
Dutee said she justified her credentials. “In the final I rushed through the first 40 metres. I was running with my eyes closed. I wanted to better my timing, medal or no medal.
“When I opened my eyes, the race was over. I did not know what had happened. People said you have won a medal, but I did not believe, I did not pick flag until I saw the result on screen
“2014 was very a bad year for me. People said many things abut me. The same girl today came back and won a medal for the country, it is really big achievement for me,” Dutee said