Luka wins gold, India finish third at Asian Athletics Championships

[Anup Tiwari]

BENGALURU: Lalita Babar beat the
Chinese challenge to win the gold
medal in women's 3,000m steeple
chase with a new meet record to
boot, while Vikas Gowda easily de
fended the discus throw title he had
won in Pune on the penultimate day
of the Asian Athletics
Championships in Wuhan, China on
Saturday.
Lalita, who trains under Nikolai
Snesarev in Ooty, clocked a personal
best of 9 minutes, 34.13s seconds to
win with a gap of seven seconds.
China's Li Zenzhu (9:41.43) and
Zhang Xinyan (9:46.82) were distant
second and third, respectively. All
three medalists bettered the meet
record.

 

[Anup Tiwari]

RE: Asian Athletics: Golden double for India in China

WUHAN (China): Lalita Babar bagged
a gold in 3000m steeplechase with a
national record shattering effort,
while ace discus thrower Vikas
Gowda won another yellow metal as
Indians produced an impressive
show to grab three medals on the
third and penultimate day of the
21st Asian Athletics championships
here on Saturday.
Lalita improved her own 3000m
steeplechase national record to win
the gold in 9:34.13. The
Maharashtra athlete had become the
favourite to win the gold after the
leading Asian in this event, Ruth
Chebet of Bahrain withdrew from the
race at Wuhan Sports Centre.

 

[Anup Tiwari]

RE: Asian Athletics: Golden double for India in China

WUHAN (China): 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 on Sunday.
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.