Renjith wins; other Indians disappoint

May 15, 2012 02:24 am | Updated July 11, 2016 05:20 pm IST - CHONBURI (Thailand):

Triple jumper Renjith Maheswary was the only Indian athlete to win gold as the Asian Grand Prix circuit wound up with the third leg here on Monday.

Neither P. Kunhumohammed nor M.R. Poovamma could reproduce their previous form as they settled for second places in the 400m races in the men and women's sections.

Among the other Indians, Sinimole Paulose (2:03.34) in the 800m, and Mayookha Johny (6.50m) in long jump also took silver medals.

Mayookha produced her best in the circuit but that was not good enough to beat Filipino veteran Marestella Torres who won with 6.62m. M.A. Prajusha (5.81m) was eighth.

Mayookha is still looking for the Olympic qualification standard of 6.65m. So, too, are the other Indians who competed in the three meets.

Renjith, who had won the second leg in Kanchanaburi, with a jump of 16.61m, could manage only 16.46m on Monday, into a headwind of 1m/s.

The other Indian, Arpinder Singh who took the silver last time with 16.57m, came third with only 15.85m. Roman Valiyev of Kazakhstan was second with 16.13m.

Poovamma, who had won the first two legs in 52.94s and 53.01s, clocked 53.50s, coming behind Iran's Maryam Toosi who timed 53.44s.

The Iranian had finished second in both the previous legs. Saraswati Sundaram (55.07s) came fourth.

Kunhumohammed who clocked a personal best 46.14s in Kanchanaburi timed 46.44s while coming second behind Iranian Sajad Hashemiahan (46.31s).

Sajeesh Joseph, winner in the first leg, came second like the last one, in the men's 800m which produced a new champion in Iraqi Adnan Taees (1:49.79), the silver medallist in the last Asian Games.

In a slow race, Joseph could manage only an ordinary 1:49.96 compared to his two previous efforts of 1:47. Ghamanda Ram was third in 1:50.06.

Long jumper Ankit Sharma (7.37m), bronze winner in the previous leg, was fifth, javelin thrower Rohit Kumar (69.12m) was also fifth while woman high jumper Sahana Kumari (1.83m) who had won a medal each in the previous meets, ended up fourth.

The Indian longer relay teams won again, in both sections, as they have been doing through the circuit, but against mediocre opposition these wins were of little significance.

The timings, too, turned out to be poorer than in the previous leg with the Indian men clocking 3:10.57 and the women 3:38.22, neither of any use towards Olympic qualification, the purpose for which the teams had been entered here.

In fact, the 4x400m relay events were late inclusions in the circuit at the request of India, which was hoping that its second-string team in the women's longer relay in particular would clock a decent timing that could come in handy for qualification.

The Indian men's 4x100m team came fifth in 39.56s while the women's sprint relay team finished third and last in 49.06s.

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