Press Trust of India
Guwahati, Feb 11: India ruled the roost on track and field events by winning 11 gold medals out of 12 on offer with javelin thrower Suman Devi coming up with the best show on the third and penultimate day of athletics competition in the 12th South Asian Games here Thursday.
Suman Devi (women’s javelin), Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump), Om Prakash Karhana (men’s shot put), PU Chitra (women’s 1,500m), Ajoy Kumar Saroj (men’s 1,500m), Jauna Murmu (women’s 400m hurdles), Dharun Ayyasamy (men’s 400m hurdles), L Surya (women’s 10,000m), Srabani Nanda (women’s 200m) and men’s and women’s 4×400 relay teams won gold for India in a show of overwhelming dominance under overcast and cold conditions at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium here.
India also won seven silver and one bronze. Sri Lanka were left with just one gold medal with Suranjaya de Silva finishing first in the men’s 200m race.
In women’s 400m hurdles, Indians were 1-2 as Jauna Murmu finished ahead of former Asian champion Ashwini Akkunji for the gold. Jauna delivered her best timing after 2010 as she clocked 57.69 seconds for the gold, while Ashwini clocked 58.92s for the silver ahead of Sri Lankan Kawshalya (59.87s).
In women’s 200m, Srabani bagged the gold in 23.91 seconds, while Dutee Chand was second in 24.14s
The best performance of the day however, came from Suman, who won the women’s javelin event and her effort of 59.45m was a mere eight centimetres outside Annu Rani’s national record of 59.53m. Rani, who also competed Thursday, had to settle for the silver.
In women’s 10,000m, L Surya ran an impressive race as she clocked 32:39.86 seconds to win gold, ahead of teammate Swaty Gadhave (33:57.09s) and S Hewage (36:11.39s) of Sri Lanka.
In triple jump, former Asian champion Renjith Maheswary improved the Games Record to 16.45m while winning the gold.
