Asian Games gold medallist Sudha Singh failed to live up to the expectations as India settled with two silver and two bronze medals on a rather disappointing third day of the 20th Asian Athletics Championships here on Friday.
Having broken her own national record last month with an Asian leading time, Sudha was tipped to bag the women’s 3000m steeplechase gold but she failed to do so as she was beaten by a long distance by Ruth Chebet of Bahrain, who ran a brilliant race to notch up her personal best of 9:40.84s, in the last event of the day.
Sudha, who has already qualified for next month’s World Championships, could only clock 9:56.27, well below her personal best of 9:45.60 as the sizeable crowd at the Shiv Chhatrapati Stadium at Balewadi were stunned into silence.
Sudha was left behind by a big distance by Chebet from around one kilometer mark and the Indian could not recover her lost ground as the Bahraini maintained her tempo till the end.
“I felt tightness after 1km mark and after that I had to maintain for silver spot. Our event was delayed because the preceding events took more time. We were kept waiting at the track for a long time and that could be the reason for my tightness,” Sudha said later.
Prem Kumar Kumaravel gave India the second silver in long jump while J Hemashree and Samarjeet Singh Malhi bagged a bronze each in women’s 100m hurdles and men’s javelin throw respectively.
After the day’s four medals, India’s tally swelled to nine with one gold, three silver and five bronze. The hosts have now slipped to sixth spot in the standings.
China are leading the table with eight gold, three silver and two bronze, followed by Bahrain (4 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze) and Saudi Arabia (3 gold) at second and third respectively. Japan (2 gold, 2 silver, 6 bronze) and Uzbekistan (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze) were fourth and fifth respectively.
Prem Kumar, one of the promising athletes who had done exceedingly well in last month’s National Inter-State Championships, came up with a creditable 7.92m in the men’s long jump.
The 20-year-old youngster gave India its first medal in 13 years after Sanjay Kumar Rai won a silver in 2000 Jakarta Asian Championships with an effort of 8.03m.
In a tight three-way contest, Prem Kumar was at third after penultimate round behind Wang Jianan of China who eventually won the gold with a jump of 7.95m and bronze winner another Chinese Tang Gongchen.
The Indian leapt to 7.92m in his sixth and final jump to bag the silver and push Gongchen, who had 7.89m, to bronze. This was Prem Kumar’s first international medal at the senior level.
“I am happy to have won a silver for my country but I was hoping that I could cross 8m mark and then try for the World Championhsips ‘B’ standard of 8.10m,” Prem Kumar said.
His coach Shyam Kumar said Prem Kumar’s take off was a problem.
“He had problems with his take off. He did not get proper take off in all his jumps,” Shyam Kumar said.
In javeline throw, Samarjit Singh gave India a suprise bronze with a best throw of 75.03m which he came up in his second attempt. All his other five attempts were foul throws.