India, powered by a golden treble from P.U. Chitra, ended a creditable second in the medals tally in the inaugural Asian school athletics meet which concluded at Pahang, Malaysia on Sunday.
Chitra emerged the golden girl of the meet as she struck gold for a third time in four days, by being part of the winning quartet in the girls’ 4x400m relay. She had earlier won the 3,000m and 1,500m titles before teaming up with V.V. Jisha, C. Babitha and Anjana Thamke to take India to the winning post in the 1600 relay in 3:53.88.
The relay gold also provided an opportunity for Jisha to complete a golden double as she had won the girls’ 400m hurdles in 1:05.69 earlier in the day.
ADVERTISEMENT
Meghana Devanga won the shot put gold with an effort of 12.91m, while Sapna Burman took the high jump title clearing 1.69m. Further, Maria Rochelle also did the country proud as she won silver in the girls’ triple jump with an impressive effort of 12.69m.
India thus finished with a tally of 12 gold, 11 silver and 6 bronze medals, second only to Malaysia which had a tally of 12-14-10.
Thailand placed third with 10-5-3, in the four-day event which saw participation from athletes of nine nations.
ADVERTISEMENT