As many as four gold medals were won by Indian athletes in different events across the globe. Ace Indian discus thrower Vikas Gowda continued with his fine form as he came up with an effort of 65.14m to win his event in the Jamaican International Invitation meet in Kingston on Sunday. Gowda, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and silver winner in 2014 Asian Games, has thrown the discus over 65m three times in the last three weeks.
The 31-year-old national record holder first came up with a throw of 65.25m at Chula Vista on April 24 to qualify for World Championships in Beijing in August before hurling the discus to 65.75m at San Diego two days later. In Kingston, Chad Wright of Jamaica was second with a throw of 61.84m while Jared Schuurmans of United States was third with an effort of 61.62m. The United States-based Indian is yet to qualify for next year’s Rio Olympics for which he need to cross the qualifying standard of 66m. His national record stands at 66.28m.
Kamalpreet wins hammer throw event
New Delhi: National record holder Kamalpreet Singh won the men’s hammer throw event with 69.61m at the Sacramento State Open in United States. Kamalpreet, representing as an unattached athlete, came up with his best throw of 69.61m in his sixth and last attempt at the Hornet Stadium at Sacramento, California last night. On March 21, Kamalpreet had improved his own national record to 70.38m at an invitational event at the same venue. The 27-year-old Punjab thrower had registered 70.37m at Tucson (Arizona) in the USA last year which was the national record till then.
Gold for Beant and Tadvi at Doha
Doha: Young Delhi runner Beant Singh and Kisan Narshi Tadvi won a gold each in boy’s 800m and girls’ 3000m race as India bagged three medals on the second day of the Asian Youth Athletics Championships here. 16-year-old Beant was in a class of his own in the two-lap event and strode to a comfortable victory, clocking 1.52.26, among fastest times in the world this year in the youth category. He ran an excellent 54 sec first lap and won the race.
The Delhi runner’s win gave India their first gold medal after one silver and two bronze medals on the opening day and just a couple of hours later Kishan Tadvi, who hails from a tribal region in Maharashtra, made it two, by winning the 3000m in an equally dominant performance of 8:26.24. Decathlete R Rajesh then fetched a silver with a total of 5,867 points over 10 events to swell India’s medal tally to two gold, two silver and two bronze over two days. An ecstatic Beant revealed that wrestling was his initial love and he switched to athletics just a few years ago.
“I was feeling really good for this race and I have been preparing really well for this competition, so to win is a great satisfaction,” he said. “I have only been in athletics for a short time, two or three years. I was a wrestler before and I was picked for a national team camp by Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar. It was at this moment that I noticed I had a talent for middle distance running and I was encouraged to switch to athletics.
Sushil remains an inspiration for me,” he added. Beant had won a silver in the National Open Athletics Championships last year at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, his first senior national medal, in 800m with a time of 1:51:08 which was a new national record in the youth category.