Asian Games athletics: Gowda disappoints, Luka in 800m final

GUANGZHOU - India’s medal hope Vikas Gowda disappointed Wednesday finishing fourth in men’s discus throw event in the Asian Games here.

India, however, braced for a few medals from track and field with several athletes qualifying for the finals with competitive timings.

Vikas, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist, threw the discus to a distance of 63.13 metres to fall out of the medal bracket. Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi (67.99m) won the gold while the bronze went to his compatriot Samimi Mohammad (63.46m) at the Aoti Main stadium. Qatar’s Mohammed Ahmed Dheeb (64.56m) got the silver.

In long jump, India’s Maha Singh leapt 7.44m, to finish seventh while Ankit Sharma came ninth with a jump of 7.08m.

Ashwini Chidananda Akkunji and Jauna Murmu qualified for the women’s 400 metre hurdles with personal best timings. Both Ashwini and Jauna topped their heats.

Jauna qualified with a timing of 57.17 seconds while Ashwini, whose season’s best is 59.26 seconds, clocked 56.43 seconds. The final of the event will be held Thursday.

In the men’s 400 metre hurdles, Joseph Abraham qualified with a timing of 50.93secs.

Strong medal contender in the women’s 800m, Tintu Luka, who disappointed in the Commonwealth Games, topped her heat with a timing of 2:03.85secs. Sinimole Paulose also qualified, clocking 2:03.83s.

In men’s 200m, Suresh Sathya qualified for the final with a timing of 21.02secs.

In decathlon, Inder Bharat Singh, who was at third place in the morning after three events, fell to ninth place after a poor perfromance in high jump, where he finished sixth (1.91m), and 400m race, in which he could not complete. He totalled 3171 after the completion of five of the 10 disciplines.

Another Indian Joseph Pulimoottil is at seventh position with overally tally of 3791 points.