Inderjeet Singh, the Asian leader this season, brought an expected shot put gold at the 21st Asian athletics championship which began here on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old from Haryana messed up his opening throw but won the gold with his next effort which went to 20m. He broke the championship record, which stood in the name of Taipei’s Chang Ming-Huang (Kobe, 2011), in the third round before landing his best, 20.41 with his next.
The others could not touch 20m with Chang Ming-Huang taking the silver with 19.56.
Inderjeet’s gold was the only bright spot for India on the opening day. Kerala’s Mayookha Johny, who came back after a poor year with a 6.34m effort at the recent Federation Cup in Mangaluru, finished sixth in the women’s long jump with 6.24m while Tamil Nadu’s Gayathry Govindarajan took the seventh spot in women’s 100m hurdles in 13.69s.
The Chennai athlete had been a bit faster in the heats, clocking 13.60. P. Deepika, the other hurdler, had crashed out in the first round after finishing sixth in 14.25s.
Siddanth Thingalaya, the men’s national record holder in the 110m hurdles, also fell in the first round heats after finishing fourth in 14.10s.
Ankit, Prem in finalLong jumpers Ankit Sharma (7.56m) and K. Prem Kumar (7.51) made it to the 12-man long jump final after picking the eighth and 11th spots respectively.
Tamil Nadu’s Arokia Rajeev (46.55) and Karnataka’s M.R. Poovamma (52.94), both Asian Games bronze medallists, qualified for the men’s and women’s 400m finals.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Nigeria-born Femi Ogunode produced the fireworks in the men’s 100m semifinals by breaking the championship record of his teammate Samuel Francis (9.99, 2007), bringing it down to 9.97s.
Ogunode had broken the Asian record at the Asian Games last year with his 9.93s and that time could be in danger in the final.
The results:
Men: 1500m: 1. Mohamad Al-Garni (Qat) 3:41.42s, 2. Mohammed Tiouali (Brn) 3:42.43, 3. Belal Ali (Brn) 3:42.67.
110m hurdles: 1. Xie Wenjun (Chn) 13.56s, 2. Abdul Aziz Almandeel (Kuw) 13.67, 3. Kim Byoung Jun (Kor) 13.75.
Shot put: 1. Inderjeet Singh (Ind) 20.41, MR, OR 20.14, Chang Ming-Huang, 2011, 2. Chang Ming-Huang (Tpe) 19.56, 3. Tian Zizhong (Chn) 19.25.
Women: 1500m: 1. Betlhem Desalegn (UAE) 4:29.39s, 2. Zhao Jing (Chn) 4:29.40, 3. Iino Maya (Jpn) 4:32.90.
100m hurdles: 1. Wu Shuijiao (Chn) 13.12s, 2. Anastassiya Pilipenko (Kaz) 13.33, 3. Kimura Ayako (Jpn) 13.41. 7. G. Gayathry (Ind) 13.69.
Long jump: 1. Lu Minjia (Chn) 6.52m, 2. Jung Soonok (Kor) 6.47, 3. Xu Xiaoling (Chn) 6.46, 6. Mayookha Johny (Ind) 6.24.
High jump: 1. Svetlana Raxzivil (Uzb) 1.91m, 2. Wang Yang (Chn) 1.88, 3. Zheng Xingjuan (Chn) 1.84.
Hammer throw: 1. Liu Tingting (Chn) 68.24m, 2. Luo Na (Chn) 65.77, 3. Watanabe Akane (Jpn) 59.39.
