Palakeezh defends 1500m title to win yellow metal; Ajay wins Silver as Dutee settles for Bronze
P U Chitra led the charge with a Gold in women's 1500m race as India picked up four medals on the fourth and final day of competitions to end at fourth at the medal tally in the Asian Athletics Championships here on Wednesday.
Chitra defended the title she had won in the 2017 edition to give India its third Gold medal while Ajay Kumar Saroj (men's 1500m) and the women's 4x400m relay team clinched a Silver each at the Khalifa Stadium.
Sprinter Dutee Chand added a Bronze in women's 200m to take India's medal tally to 3 Gold, 7 Silver and 7 Bronze.
But there was a late drama as India was initially declared to have won a Silver in men's 4x400m relay with a time of 3:03.28, behind Japan (3:02.94) but the jury later disqualified the team for impeding an athlete after protest by China. The disqualification was done under rule 163.2.
India filed an appeal against the jury's decision to disqualify its team from the 4x400m relay race but it was rejected.
China, who initially finished third, was given the Silver while Qatar was upgraded to Bronze from fourth position.
The jolt reduced India's total medal by one from 18 to 17 but did not, however, result to any changes in India's standing in the medal tally.
India had won 29 medals (12 Gold, 5 Silver, 12 Bronze) in the last edition in Bhubaneswar in 2017, topping the medal tally for the first time.
This time, Bahrain topped the medal tally with 11 Gold, 7 Silver and 4 Bronze, followed by China (10 Gold, 13 Silver, 7 Bronze), Japan (5 Gold, 4 Silver, 9 Bronze) and India.
This was the second time since 1983 that China has been pushed to the second spot. India did that in 2017 while Bahrain did the same this time.
India's tally of 17 medals can be considered creditable as the team was a depleted one without some of the medal contenders, including star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, due to injuries.
The championships as usual did not see some of the best athletes in the world who preferred to focus on the World Championships to be held at the same venue in September-October.
For India, the spotlight of the final day fell on Chitra as she beat two Bahraini runners to clinch the Gold in the women's 1500m race. She overtook Bahraini runner Tigest Gashaw just a few metres before the finishing line to win the race in 4 minute 14.56 seconds.
While Chitra defended her title, her male counterpart Saroj (1500m) and the women's 4x400m relay team failed to do the same.
Saroj, who had won Gold in 2017, clocked a season best time of 3 minute 43.18 seconds to clinch a Silver behind Bahrain's Abraham Kipchirchir Rotich who clocked 3:42.85.
The women's 4x400m relay quartet of Prachi, Poovamma, Saritaben Gayakwad and VK Vismaya finished second with a time of 3:32.21, behind the Bahraini quartet who clocked 3:32.10.
Dutee, who had finished a disappointing fifth in the 100m final on Tuesday after smashing national record twice, clocked 23.24 seconds to win the Bronze in the women's 200m.
After falling behind in the first 100m, she covered a lot of ground in the final 100m stretch and got past three competitors at the finish line.
The 23-year-old Dutee, who had won a 200m Silver in the Jakarta Asian Games, still missed the World Championships qualifying mark of 23.02. She has a personal best of 23.00.
