Bhubaneswar: The disappointment which had built up at the Kalinga Stadium after Jauna Murmu’s sixth-place finish in the 400m hurdles was wiped away in a jiffy as Oriya sprint queen Dutee Chand bagged her second medal at the ongoing 22nd Asian Athletics Championships here Saturday while Srabani opened her account.
The Indian women’s 4x100m relay team of which Dutee is a part, has bagged bronze with a time of 44.57 seconds demonstrating some high quality running. The other members of the team were Merlin K Joseph and Himashree Roy. The gold went to Kazakhstan (43.53s) and China got the silver with a time of 44.50. Srabani ran the second leg of the race and Dutee the fourth.
Earlier in the evening, spectators were left speechless when Jauna finished a poor sixth in the 400m hurdles final with a time of 58.11 seconds.
Starting on the fifth lane, Jauna never looked like getting a medal. She was always lagging behind as Japanese Sayaka Aoki and Vietnamese Nguyen Thi led all the way, the latter breaking away at the 300-metre mark to win gold by a comfortable margin. Jauna was seventh on the halfway turn, she could only make up a place as India’s R Anu, running in the seventh lane, sped away in the last 50 metres to pip Sayaka and win silver.
Meanwhile, Amiya Mallick running in the third heat of the 200 metres finished second with a time of 21.30 seconds to book a place in the semifinals.
However, to win a medal Amiya will have to improve on his time drastically. Among the 27 participants in the heat, Amiya’s timing was the 12th best with Qatari Femi Seun setting the best time of 20.79 seconds.
However, other Indian athletes continued to impress with Sudha Singh winning gold in the 3000m steeplechase. The Uttar Pradesh athlete won the race in 9:59.47 seconds to grab the first gold of the day for India.
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