Silver smile for Tintu; Annu Rani spears a bronze

October 01, 2014 06:39 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 07:13 pm IST - Incheon

Annu Rani competes in the women's javelin throw final at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon on Wednesday.

Annu Rani competes in the women's javelin throw final at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon on Wednesday.

For the last couple of years, there has been talk that Tintu Luka does not have it in her to win big medals. She seemed to be very consistent in messing up races, either by getting trapped in a box or by the lack of a strong kick at the finish.

Despite being very talented and with potential to clock impressive timings, Tintu did not have the medals to match that. It was bronze or nothing at all.

But on Wednesday, Tintu finally had a silver medal at the Asian Games and she was stunningly close to her personal best at the Asiad Main Stadium here. There was a bronze too, from Uttar Pradesh’s Annu Rani who became the first Indian woman to get a javelin medal at these Continental Games.

Tintu, who is coached by P.T. Usha at her academy, is a front runner and she led the pack of eight for a major part of the race but did have much left when defending champion Margarita Mukasheva from Kazakhstan pushed up a gear and overtook the Indian some 50m from the finish to take the gold in 1:59.02s, an Asiad record.

Tintu, the Asian leader this season, appeared a bit shaky after this but she held off a late charge from China’s Zhao Jing to take the silver in 1:59.19s, a time which was just a shade slower than her personal best which came at the Continental Cup in Croatia four years ago.

Good race, fast track

“It was a very good race but I think I ran the first lap a bit fast. Usha told me to run in 58.5 but I ran in 57 something, that’s why I think I got a bit shaky at the end,” said the 25-year-old. “But I’m very happy to have got this silver and to have run below two minutes.”

Tintu said the Incheon track was fast and the conditions were ideal for a good race.

National mark

Meanwhile, Annu Rani broke her own National record with a 59.53m in her very first throw but severe pain in her left leg pulled her down after that.

“I had severe pain in my left leg after the first throw and I could not complete my other throws properly,” said the 22-year-old.

Sajeesh Joseph got a surprise fourth place in the men’s 800m after the top three finishers, Qatar’s Musaab Balla, Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Aziz Laden and Brunei’s Abraham Kipchirchir, were disqualified after the race.

Defending champion Ashwini Akkunji finished fourth in the women’s 400m hurdles which was won by Bahrain’s World No. 4 Adekoya Oluwakemi. In the men’s 400m hurdles, where India won the gold at the last Asiad through Joseph Abraham, Jithin Paul was disqualified for a false start.

Kazakhstan’s Olympic champion Olga Rypakova, who returned to the sport a few months ago, won the women’s triple jump in 14.32m while India’s Mayookha Johny finished ninth in 13.50m and failed to qualify for the eight-woman final. The other Indian, Prajusha, pulled a muscle during the warm-up and quit early.

Sandeep Kumar finished fourth in the men’s 50km race walk (3:59.31s) while the other Indian Bahadur Basanta was fifth (4:07.06).

The results:

Men: 50km race walk: 1. Takayuki Tanii (Jpn) 3:40.19s, 2. Park Chil-Sung (Kor) 3:49:15, 3. Wang Zhendong (Chn) 3:50.52s. Decathlon: 1. Keisuke Ushiro (Jpn) 8,088 pts, 2. Leonid Andreev (Uzb) 7,879, 3. Akihiko Nakamura (Jpn) 7,828. 800m: 1. Adnan Taess Akkar (Irq) 1:47.48s, 2. Teng Haining (Chn) 1:47.81, 3. Jamal Hairane (Qat) 1:48.25. 200m: 1. Femi Ogunode (Qat) 20.14s, 2. Fahhad Mohammed Alsubaie (KSA) 20.74, 3. Yeo Ho-Sua (KOR) 20.82. 400m hurdles: 1. Ali Khamis Abbas (Brn) 49.71s, 2. Takayuki Kishimoto (Jpn) 49.81, 3. Cheng Wen (Chn) 50.29.

Women: 100m hurdles: 1. Wu Shuijiao (Chn) 12.72s, 2. Sun Yawei (Chn) 13.05, 3. Ayako Kimura (JPN) 13.25. Triple jump: 1. Olga Rypakova (Kaz) 14.32m, 2. Aleksandra Kotlyarova (Uzb) 14.05, 3 Irina Ektova (Kaz) 13.77. 800m: 1. Margarita Mukasheva (Kaz) 1:59.02s, 2. Tintu Luka (Ind) 1:59.19, 3. Zhao Jing (Chn) 1:59.48. 200m: 1. Olga Safronova (Kaz) 23.02s, 2. Wei Yongli (Chn) 23.27, 3. Chisato Fukushima (JPN) 23.45. Javelin: 1. Zhang Li (Chn) 65.47m, 2. Li Lingwei (Chn) 61.43, 3. Annu Rani (Ind) 59.53. 400m hurdles: 1. Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya (Brn) 55.77s, 2. Satomi Kubokora (Jpn) 56.21, 3. Xiao Xia (Chn7) 56.59.

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