Yecheon (Korea), Jun 4: Fast-rising Rezoana Mallick Heena and Bharatpreet Singh clinched a gold medal each in women’s 400m race and men’s discus throw respectively to launch India’s campaign at the Asian U-20 Athletics Championship on an emphatic note here on Sunday.
India ended the opening day at second spot with two gold and one bronze — won by Antima Pal in women’s 5000m race — behind Japan (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).
The 16-year-old Heena clocked 53.31 seconds to win the gold — her first international medal at the junior level. She clocked 53.51 seconds in her heat in the morning session.
The athlete from Bengal had also won a gold in the Asian U-18 Athletics Championships in Tashkent in April with a creditable personal best time of 52.98 seconds.
Sri Lankan quartermilers Dissanayaka Tharushi Dilsara (53.70s) and Mudugamuwa Jayeshi Uththara (55.51s) clinched the silver and bronze respectively.
Bharatpreet picked up the second gold for India with a best throw of 55.66m, which he achieved in his third attempt.
Sayfullaev Dunyozod (55.58m) of Uzbekistan and Mohammed Reza Sisakth (55.54m) of Iran bagged the silver and bronze respectively.
Antima clocked 17 minutes and 17.11 seconds to win the bronze in the women’s 5,000m race. Compatriot Bushra Khan Gauri finished fifth with a time of 18:15.98 seconds.
Japan’s Nanaka Yonezawa and Akari Matsumoto won the gold and silver medals respectively with times of 16:37.36 seconds and 16:42.21 seconds.
It was, however, a disappointing day for pole vaulter Dev Kumar Meena, who was competing with a borrowed pole provided by the organisers, as he failed to clear the initial height of 4.50m in three attempts.
Due to technical reasons, the 18-year-old Meena was not allowed to take his pole with him in the Air India flight from New Delhi to Seoul. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had requested the organisers to provide him the pole.
He had a personal best of 5.00m and had won gold in the Federation Cup National Senior Championships last month by clearing 4.80m.
Seifeldin Mohammed Abdelsalam of Qatar won the pole vault gold with a best effort of 5.50m.
Vidhi finished fourth in the women’s shot put with a best throw of 15.16m.
In the men’s 800m, both Shyam Milan Bind and Shakeel advanced to the medal round scheduled for Monday. Bind clocked 1:52.62 seconds to finish third in his heat, while Shakeel ran 1:51.58 seconds to finish second in his heat.
In the women’s 100m, Abinaya Rajarajan advanced to the final after clocking 11.91 seconds in her heat.
India is being represented by 45 athletes, including 19 women, in the June 4-7 championships. (PTI)
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