Taipei City: Ace sprinter of Orissa Dutee Chand won the fourth silver for India in women’s 100m dash as India bagged a rich-haul of eight medals in the third and final Asian Athletics Grand Prix Meet here Sunday.
Dutee finished second with a time of 11.52 secs. She had won a bronze in the first leg and a silver in the second leg. National record holder quartermiler Muhammed Anas and shot putter Om Prakash Karhana clinched a gold each. Anas clocked 45.69 secs to win the gold in his first international meet of the season. His effort, however, fell short of the IAAF World Championships entry mark of 45.50secs.
In men’s shot put, Karhana won a gold with a best throw of 19.58m. This was Karhana’s first international gold medal in a long time. Manpreet Kaur (women’s shot put), Tintu Luka (women’s 800m), Jinson Johnson (men’s 800m) bagged a silver each while Neeraj Chopra (men’s javelin throw) and MR Poovamma (women’s 400m) settled for a bronze each.
Shot putter Manpreet Kaur, who had smashed her own national record to win the gold in the first leg with a throw of 18.86m, had to settle for a silver. In women’s 800m, national record holder Luka clocked a below-par 2:03.97 to finish second behind Gayanthika Thushari of Sri Lanka who clocked 2:03.87. Luka had also won a silver each in the first two legs. In men’s 800m, Jinson Johnson clocked 1:51:35 to win a silver.
It was a big disappointment for junior world record holder javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra who had to settle for a bronze with a below-par throw of 79.90m. The second bronze for India was won by Poovamma, running in her first race of the year, in women’s 400m as she clocked 53.11 secs.
India had won seven medals (one gold, four silver, two bronze) in the first leg April 24 and six (one gold, four silver, one bronze) in the second leg April 27.
PTI
