POOVAMMA WINS GOLD AT ASIAN ATHLETICS MEET

Bangkok, May 4: Indian athletes produced an impressive performance by bagging 11 medals, including four gold, in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix series here on Saturday. M.R. Poovamma (women’s 400m), Sahana Kumari (women’s high jump), Jithin Thomas (men’s high jump) and Nitin Rawat (men’s 5000m) bagged a gold each while Siddhanth Thingalaya (men’s 110m hurdles), Rajiv Arokai (men’s 400m), Kheta Ram (men’s 5000m) and Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump) won a silver apiece. Anu Mariam Jose (women’s 400m), Arpinder Singh (men’s triple jump) and Mukesh Kumari (women’s javelin) won a bronze each.

National record holder Maheswary missed the World Championships qualification standard by just two centimetres.

Ace woman discus thrower Krishna Poonia, however, finished a disappointing fourth with a below-par performance, while Om Prakash Karhana also came a cropper with a sixth-place finish in men’s shot put.

Poovamma gave India the first gold of the day by clocking 52.97 secs in women’s 400m race, a shade below her 52.75 sec effort which had fetched her a gold at Federation Cup National Athletics Championships at Patiala last month. She had also won gold in the same event in two of the three-leg Asian Grand Prix series last year.

Anu Mariam Jose bagged the bronze in 53.95 sec while Subashini Rasnayake of Sri Lanka won the silver in 53.35 sec.

Sahana Kumari, who trains at SAI Bengaluru, gave India the second gold in women’s high jump by clearing 1.86m.