As a little girl in Amritsar, Khushbir Kaur was good at football. But after a few years, she realised that success in the sport depended on many others since it was a team game. And since her sister was into walking, Khushbir thought of trying it too.
On Sunday, Indian race walking’s wonder girl won a sensational silver in the 20km at the 17th Asian Games here. It was the country’s first-ever women’s silver in the event at the Asiad.
“I’ve been to the World Cup and Asian Championships, yes, I was expecting this medal,” said the 21-year-old. “This is not my personal best, I’ve run faster but I got two cautions today, the first at the 10km and the second between the 16 to 18km and this slowed me down. I was worried after that, I did not want to lose a medal chance. I was in the first group of four girls early.”
A few hours later, quartermilers M.R. Poovamma and Arokia Rajiv picked up bronze medals while Manju Bala brought another in the women’s hammer throw.
While Karnataka’s Poovamma expected her medal, for Tamil Nadu’s Rajiv, it came as a bolt from the blue.
“This is a big surprise for me, I thank the Lord, my coach and everybody,” said Rajiv an Armyman from the MRC Wellington who ran a personal best 45.92s. “My coach (Mohammed Kunju) told me that there’s a sure medal for me, he made me confident and that motivated me.”
Rajiv, son of a school bus driver, got into the medal zone around the last 50m or and pushed hard at the end to finish behind Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Al-Masrahi and Bahrain’s Abbas Abubaker.
Poovamma, however, believed she was good for the silver but a slow start took that brighter medal away.
“I had a better start in the semifinal yesterday but my finish was good today. This medal will surely motivate us to do well in the 4x400m relay,” said the 24-year-old.
Meanwhile, the day’s biggest surprise came from Qatari’s Femi Ogunode who shattered the seven-year-old Asian 100m record, lowering it to a stunning 9.93s.
Running under a steady drizzle, Femi, who has improved his personal best thrice in the last few weeks (from 10.04 to today’s 9.93), powered his way to a stunning finish even as record holder Samuel Francis (9.98s), who appeared to have suffered a hamstring pull, finished last in 10.41s.
Siddhanth Thingalaya progressed to the men’s 110m hurdles final, after finishing fifth in his heats in 13.74s, as one of the two fastest runners not in the top three.
The results:
Men: 100m: 1. Femi Ogunode (Qat) 9.93s (Asian record, OR 9.99), 2. Su Bingtian (Chn) 10.10, 3. Kei Takase (Jpn) 10.15.
400m: 1. Masrahi Yousef Ahmed (KSA) 44.46s (Asiad record, OR 44.93, 2. Abbas Abubaker (Brn) 45.62, 3. Arokia Rajiv (Ind) 45.92, 7. P. Kunhu Muhammed (Ind) 46.53.
20km walk: 1. Zhen Wang (Chn) 1:19.45s, 2. Yasuke Suzuki (Jpn) 1:20.44, 3 Hyunsub Kim (Kor) 1:21.37. 5. K.T. Irfan (Ind) 1:23.18.
Women: 100m: 1. Yongli Wei (Chn) 11.48s, 2. Chisato Fukushima (Jpn) 11.49, 3. Olga Safronova (Kaz) 11.50 (Shardha Narayana, fourth in heats in 12.04 on Saturday).
400m: 1. Adekoya Oluwakemi (Brn) 51.59s, 2. Thi Lan Quach (Vie) 52.06, 3. M.R. Poovamma (Ind) 52.36, 6. Mandeep Kaur (Ind) 53.38.
Pole vault: 1. Xue Changrui (Chn) 5.55m, 2. Daichi Sawano (Jpn) 5.55, 3. Jin Minsub (5.45).
Hammer throw: 1. Wenxiu Zhang (Chn) 77.33m (GR, OR 74.15), 2. Wang Zheng (Chn) 74.16, 3. Manju Bala (Ind) 60.47.
20km race walk: 1. Lu Xiuzhi (Chn) 1:31.06s, 2. Khushbir Kaur (Ind) 1:33.07, 3. Jeon Yeongeun (Kor) 1:33.18.