Tintu Luka opened her European tour with a victory in the Folksam Grand Prix meet at Karlstad, Sweden, on Tuesday.
The Indian record holder, preparing for the World championships this month, clocked 2:02.58, a shade under her season best (2:02.55 at Kobe) while winning the 800 metres in a modest field in the Swedish town.
According to information received here, Luka remained behind Lithuanian Egle Balciunate (personal best 1:59.47) for most of the race before moving ahead during the final 200 metres.
She was able to beat her nearest rival only over the last few metres.
The win, especially coming from behind, should augur well for the Kerala woman, who quite often had been criticised for her front-running style and lack of finishing speed by ‘experts'.
Baluciante came second in 2:02.72 while Melissa Bishop of Canada was third in 2:02.80.
Luka won 5,000 Swedish Kroner (Rs 34,000) for her win.
Coach P. T. Usha was happy with Luka's performance and was confident that her ward would run below two minutes in the next competitions she was planning to compete.
Luka is scheduled to participate in Amsterdam (Aug 6) and Leuven, Belgium (Aug 13) and should be aiming to get to the Olympic qualification standard of 2:01.30.
She had already qualified for the World championships to be held in Daegu, Korea, from August 27.
The other Indian runner in the fray in the Karlstad meet, Ghamanda Ram, came fifth in the men's 800m race in a time of 1:47.25s.
Briton Mukhtar Mohammed (1:45.90) took the gold and was followed by Sudan's Ahmad Ismail, the Beijing Olympics silver medallist, in 1:46.09 and Denmark's Andreas Bube, at 1:46.49.
Ghamanda is also looking for the Olympic qualification mark of 1:46.30. He had a 1:46.46 in taking the bronze in the Asian championships in Kobe last month.
