WUHAN (CHINA), June 7: Tintu Luka bagged her maiden gold in a major international event by winning the women’s 800m finals as India finished with five medals on the final day of competitions to sign off third in the 21st Asian Athletics Championships here today.
India secured a medal haul of 4 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze in the championships to finish third behind China (15, 13, 13) and Qatar (7, 2, 1). Japan (4, 3, 11) and Bahrain (3, 3, 2) finished fourth and fifth respectively.
This was India’s best finish after 2007 in Amman, Jordan where the country was placed second.
National record holder Luka clocked her season’s best timing of 2:01.53 to clinch the gold at Wuhan Sports Center. China’s Zhao Jing (2:03.40) took the silver while Sri Lankan Nimali Klarachchige (2:03.94) won the bronze.
In men’s 800m, Jinson Johnson bagged a silver with a time of 1:49.69 behind Qatar’s defending champion Musaab Bala 1:49.40. Japan’s Kawamoto Sho (1:50.50) took the bronze. Dharambir Singh and Srabani Nanda then added a bronze each in men’s and women’s 200m to make it a productive day for India.
For Srabani, who clocked her personal best of 23.54 secs to win the bronze, it was her first major international medal.
India, however, suffered heartbreak as the women’s 4x400m relay quartet failed to defend the title they won in the last edition in 2013 and were pushed to second place by China. (PTI)
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