Of all the disciplines that promised medals, athletics is the one that has delivered the most. On day 12 of the Asian Games, the last day of the track and field events, India fielded another impressive set of athletes. Starting off the medal hunt was Seema Punia, the defending champion in the women’s discus throw. Sandeep Kumari was the other Indian in contention.
Punia began strong, with a throw of 58.51m. Soon, however, the Chinese duo of Yang Chen and Bin Feng overtook her. Yang threw 59.61m in her first attempt and Feng reached 61.84m in her second throw.
The Chinese kept their lead till the end, while Punia played catch up. She threw an impressive 62.26m in her third attempt to remain at the third position. And it stayed that way till the end.
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Yang won gold with a throw of 65.12m, Feng silver with 64.25m and Punia bronze with 62.26m. Kumari finished fifth with a best throw of 54.61m.
In men's 5000m, G. Lakshmanan, who had lost the bronze he won earlier because of a track violation, did not do as well in this race. He finished sixth with a timing of 14:17.09. The gold winner, Birhanu Balew of Bahrain, finished in 13:43.17. Perhaps Lakshmanan had lost confidence because of the earlier violation.
In 1500m women, P.U. Chitra started conservatively, but picked up pace in after the first 200m. She remained third behind the Bahraini duo of Befkadu Kalkidan and Tigist Belay for most part of the race, and the gap between her and Belay, widened further, at one point reaching about 20m. In the end, Chitra won India’s first bronze in athletics this time, with a timing of 4:12.56. Kalkidan won gold with a timing of 4:07.88 and Belay took silver with a timing of 4:09.12.
In men’s 1500m, Jinson Johnson started strong. Manjit Singh, however, went with his strategy of staying behind. He was last for a few seconds. In the last lap, Manjit picked up his speed, but could not repeat the magic of his 800m race. He finished fourth with a timing of 3:46.57. Jinson, however, stayed in the top bunch throughout and took the gold with a timing of 3:44.72.
In women’s 4x400m relay, Hima Das started with pace, becoming the first to hand over the baton to her teammate M.R. Poovamma, who almost gave up the lead. However, India maintained the lead through Saritaben Gaikwad and, in the end, V.K. Vismaya, to take home the gold. They finished the race in 3:28.72. The Bahraini team got silver with a timing of 3:30.61. Hima seemed to have hurt her leg, and wobbled into a group hug with her teammates.
In men’s 4x400m relay, Kunhu Muhammed, the veteran, started off modestly, finishing third in his leg and handing off the baton to teammate Dharun Ayyasamy. He managed to maintain his position and handed off to Muhammad Anas, who put India in second place. In the last leg, anchor Arokia Rajiv ran impressively, but finished second, at 3:01.85, behind Qatar, which finished at 3:00.56.