Confidently tackling the barriers of pressure and pain, Jeetender Singh won India's first medal at the fourth Military World Games, striking bronze in 400M hurdles here on Tuesday.

On a day when Qatar's Samuel Francis smashed the Games record to bits in the 100 metres, India had its eyes only on Jeetender, a 24-year-old hawaldar in the Signals Training Centre in Jabalpur.

Jeetender wasn't a top medal contender but he showed tremendous fighting abilities to keep out Greece's Konstantios Anastasiou at the finish. The Indian timed 51.70 for the third spot behind Edrees Hawsawi of Saudi Arabia (50.26) and Thiago de Jesus Salas of Brazil (50.98).

"I am happy that I won India's first medal but I certainly could have done a better timing," said Jeetender even as he was mobbed by cameramen and reporters. "I was confident of winning a medal at the start and I just ran my own race, without bothering about other runners," added Jeetender, who was bothered by a sore hamstring in the final week of preparations.

"His speed endurance was pretty poor, so I made him run the 400 metres and switched to the hurdles only in the last phase," said a delighted coach C Muralidharan, the MEG man, who found himself in the spotlight as well.

Hanging on

That stood Jeetender in good stead as he came into the straight in third place. Anastasiou was dangerously close with about 50M left, but the Indian held on to land in the lap of success. A long-jumper and high hurdler early on in his career, Jeetender switched to intermediate hurdles after joining the Army and the move has worked wonders for the athlete from Rae Bareilly.

Francis was the king in the men's 100M final. The Asian champion and record holder blew away the field to time 10.10 seconds. The record, set by another Qatari Talal Mansoor, stood at 10.18 seconds. "The track was fast, the weather was good, I simply enjoyed the race," said the former Nigerian, who will be gunning for a double when the 200M preliminaries start on Wednesday.

In the men's 400M, won by N Ali Abubakar of Sudan in 46.00 seconds, India's S K Mortaza ended eighth in 48.12 seconds.

Results: Men: 100M: Samuel Francis (Qatar) 10.10 seconds (Games record. Old: 10.18) 1; Collio Simone (Italy) 10.29, 2; Lukasz Chyla ( Poland) 10.39, 3.

400M: N Ali Abubakar (Sudan) 46.00 seconds, 1; Daniel Dabrowski (Poland) 46.36, 2; Prasanna Amarasekara (Sri Lanka) 46.48, 3.

5000M: Mark Kipto (Kenya) 13:51.74, 1; Brahim Beloua (Morocco) 13:52.32, 2; Rabah Aboud (Algeria) 13:53.74, 3.

400M hurdles: Edrees Hawsawi (Saudi Arabia) 50.26 seconds, 1; Thiago de Jesus Salas (Brazil) 50.98, 2; Jeetender Singh (India) 51.70, 3.

Pole vault: Florian Suerth (Germany) 5.20 metres, 1; Paul Gensic (United States) 5.10, 2; Rubbiani Matteo (Italy) 5.00, 3.

Discus throw:  Piotr Malachowski (Poland) 65.87 metres (Games record. Old: 65.87), 1; Zoltan Kovago (Hungary) 64.38, 2; Rashid Shafi Al-Dossari (Qatar) 60.03, 3.

Women: 400M: Menaka Wikramasinghe (Sri Lanka) 52.93 seconds, 1; Elena Ildeikina (Russia) 54.78, 2; Josephine Nyarunda (Kenya) 54.88, 3.

800M: Brigita Langerholc (Slovenia) 2:04.05, 1; Anna Sidorova (Uzbekistan) 2:04.70, 2; Natallia Dziadkova (Belarus) 2:05.85 , 3.

Long jump: Chrysopigi Devetzi (Greece) 6.69 metres, 1; Anna Phyatykh (Russia) 6.23, 2; Anastasiya Juravlyova (Uzbekistan) 6.21, 3.