India's Manjeet Kaur wins bronze in Asian Athletics

Shot putter Om Prakash Singh won the first gold for India while three of his compatriots bagged a bronze each on the second day of the 18th Asian Athletics Championships here. With a gold and three bronze, India's medal tally swelled to five with one gold and four bronze. Kavita Raut had won a bronze in women's 5000m. Om Prakash cleared 19.87m in his fifth round throw to bag the yellow metal in a strong field which had Asian record holder Al-habishi Sultan of Saudi Arabia, who eventually finished fifth with 18.89m. The Indian, however, failed to touch his personal best of 20.02m.

Chang Ming Huang (19.34m) of Chinese Taipei won the silver while Jun Zhang (19.15m) of China took the bronze. National record holder Manjeet Kaur's 53.66 sec effort in women's 400m was well below her best of 51.05 sec or season's best of 52.08 sec but still enough to win a bronze in a tight race. Compatriot Mandeep Kaur was fourth with 53.76 sec. Asami Tanno of Japan finally won her elusive Asian Championships gold with a timing of 53.32 sec. She had won silver in Amman (2007) and bronze in Incheon (2005). Chen Li ( 53.55 sec) of China won the silver.

Hamza, who had a personal best of 3:40.10, clocked 3:48.44 to win the bronze while compatriot Sunil Kumar was fifth with 3:49.38. Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Shaween (3:46.08) won the gold while Sri Lanka's Wijekon Chaminda (3:47.01) finished second. Jyothi ran a fine race in a strong field to fetch a bronze in women's 100m dash, clocking 11.60 sec. Chisato Fukushima of Japan as expected won the gold in 11.27 sec to emerge as the fastest woman in the Championships while Vietnam's Vu Thi Huong was second with 11.50 sec. The two Indians in men's 100m, however, disappointed. Sathya Suresh and Abdul Najeeb Qureshi finished seventh and eighth respectively in the final with efforts of 10.62 sec and 10.63 sec.

China's Zhang Peimeng won the race in 10.28 sec to become the fastest man in the competition. In women's triple jump, MA Prajusha (12.58m) and Reshmi Bose (12.18m) were eighth and 10th respectively. Asian record holder Olga Rypakova (14.53m) of Kazakhstan won the gold. In men's 400m final, Bibin Mathew and Shaikh Mortaza failed to come up their best to finish fourth and fifth respectively, clocking 47.03 and 47.36. In the women's 1500m also, Simon Rajam Bindhu and Sushma Devi brought up fourth and fifth place finish respectively with efforts of 4:33.73 and 4:35.04.