Jakarta: Dutee Chand grabbed her second silver medal at the 18th Asian Games after finishing second in the women’s 200 metres race here on Wednesday.
Dutee, who also won silver medal in the 100m, clocked 23.20 seconds to finish behind Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong, who claimed the gold medal in 22.96 seconds. Wei Yongli of China won the bronze medal with a timing of 23.27 seconds at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Stadium. The Odisha athlete had topped the standings in the semi-finals with a timing of 23.00 seconds — her personal best, while Odiong was second in 23.01 seconds Tuesday.
In the final, the 22-year-old, Dutee, was 0.20 seconds slower than her Tuesday’s performance. Running in the third lane, Dutee started strong and in the first 3040 metres she was in the third position. But she peaked and gave a tough fight to 21-year-old Odiong, who seemed the favourite from the start. After the 7-metre mark, it was nearly obvious that the top two positions would be taken by Odiong and Dutee respectively. Odiong, with a long stride, never looked beatable by Dutee.
Arpinder, Swapna bag gold
Arpinder Singh and Swapna Barman clinched gold medals for India in the men’s triple jump and heptathlon events respectively, Wednesday. India’s 48-year wait for a gold medal in the men’s triple jump event at the Games ended as Arpinder returned with his best effort of 16.77 metres in the final. Arpinder pipped Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Kurbanov, who took the silver medal with a personal best jump of 16.62 metres. The bronze medal went to Chinese Cao Shuo, who jumped 16.56 metres. Swapna Barman created history by becoming the first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold.