JOIN USSilver for Tintu, bronze for Annu
Tintu Luka threw her coach’s advice out of the books to nail a cherished silver while Annu Rani added gloss by bagging a bronze at the 17th Asian Games here on Wednesday.
Tintu, setting the early pace in the women’s 800M, expectedly faded towards the end but showed fine grit in clocking 1:59.19 to finish second behind Margarita Mukasheva of Kazakhstan at the Asiad Main Stadium.
The surprise element, however, came in the field with Annu producing her personal best throw of 59.53 metres to win the javelin bronze.
Ashwini Akkunji finished fourth in the women’s 400M hurdles while Sajeesh Joseph also got a surprise fourth place in the men’s 800M when the three medallists were disqualified for pushing and also for lane violations, elevating his seventh place by three ranks.
Mayookha Johny ended ninth in the triple jump after managing an effort of 13.50 metres and Sushma Devi was fourth-placed in Tintu’s race while Jithin Paul was disqualified for a false start in the men’s 400M hurdles.
Tintu, determined to make up for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games disappointment where she failed to reach the final, started her race in typical fashion.
While her coach, the legendary PT Usha, had set her target of 58 seconds to cover the first lap, Tintu went past the mark in 57 seconds. She kept going with the same pace over the next 200 metres as well, even entering the final straight ahead of Mukasheva before fatigue started to kick in.
Mukasheva, the defending champion, then started to unleash herself, overtaking Tintu with about 60 metres go.
Over the next 20 metres Mukasheva opened up a healthy lead to all but assure herself while a tiring Tintu was forced to duel with an advancing Zhao Jing for the silver. Tintu, however, found that extra energy, finishing ahead of Zhao to bag the silver. Mukasheva set a new Games record of 1:59.02, erasing the 1:59.85 set by Qu Yunxia of China in 1994.
“I just spontaneously decided to go fast,” said Tintu with coach Usha next to her. “Mukasheva is a really good runner and I didn’t want to get bogged down. I went for it and I’m glad to have won a silver.”
In the javelin throw that gathered pace only after the halfway stage, Annu led with her very first throw of 59.53 metres. The throw, however, aggravated an ankle injury and she couldn’t better that in her subsequent attempts, managing just a maximum of 54.34 on her final attempt to settle for bronze.
Zhang, warming up like a burner flame, seized the lead with a throw of 62.42 with her third, raised it to 63.98 before smashing the Game record with a throw of 65.47 on her final attempt. Li took silver with a throw of 61.43.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Femi Ogunode turned the spotlight on himself for the second time in four days after blitzing to victory in the men’s 200M.
Having emerged as the fastest man in Asia with a
of 9.93 in the 100M on Sunday, Femi capped a brilliant Incheon outing, setting a new Games record of 20.14 en route to his massive victory.
Results: Men: 200M: Femi Ogunode (Qat) 20.14 seconds (GR; Old: 20.25, Koji Ito, Jpn, 1998) 1; Mohammed Alsubaie Fahhad (KSA) 20.74, 2; Hosua Yeo (Kor) 20.82, 3.800M: Adnan Almntfage (Irq) 1:47.48, 1; Teng Haining (Chn) 1:47.81, 2; Jamal Hairane (Qat) 1:48.25, 3. Sajeesh Joseph (Ind) 1:49.59, 4.
400M hurdles: Abbas Ali Khamis (Brn) 49.71, 1; Takayuki Kishimoto (Jpn) 49.81, 2; Cheng Wen (Chn) 50.29, 3
. Decathlon: Keisuke Ushiro (Jpn) 8088 points, 1; Leonid Andreev (Uzb) 7879, 2; Akihiko Nakamura (Jpn) 7828, 3.
50KM race walk: Takayuki Tanni (Jpn) 3:40:19, GR (OGR 3:47:04Tainfeng Si (Chn), 2010), 1; Park Chilsung (Kor) 3:49:15, 2; Zhendong Wang (Chn) 3:50:52, 3; Sandeep Kumar (Ind) 3:59:31, 4; Rana Basanth Bahadur (Ind) 4:07:06, 5. Lin Zhang (Chn) 4:08:05, 6.
Women: 800M: Margarita Mukasheva (Kaz) 1:59.02 (GR; Old: 1:59.85, Qu Yunxia, Chn, 1994) 1; Tintu Luka (Ind) 1:59.19, 2; Zhao Jing (Chn) 1:59.48, 3. Sushma Devi (Ind) 2:01.92, 4.
100M hurdles: Wu Shuijiao (Chn) 12.72, 1; Sun Yawei (Chn) 13.05, 2; Ayako Kimura (13.25) 3.
400M hurdles: Mujidat Adekoya (Brn) 55.77, 1; Satomi Kubokura (Jpn) 56.21, 2; Xia Xiao (Chn) 56.69, 3. Ashwini Akkunji (Ind) 57.52, 4.
Triple jump: Olga Rypakova (Kaz) 14.32, 1; Aleksandra Kotlyarova (Uzb) 14.05, 2; Irina Ektova (Uzb) 13.77, 3. Mayookha Johny (Ind) 13.50, 9. M A Prajusha (India) Javelin throw: Zhang Li (Chn) 65.47 (GR; Old; Yuki Ebihara, Jpn, 2010) 1; Li Lingwei (Chn) 61.43, 2; Annu Rani (Ind) 59.53, 3.