Asiad: Joseph, Ashwini clinch 400m hurdles gold for India
=================================================================================
NEW DELHI: Joseph Abraham and Ashwini Akkunji created history for India by claiming gold medals in the men's and women's 400m hurdles respectively at the 16th Asian Games.
Ashwini clocked a personal best 56.15sec to clinch an unexpected gold medal for India in the women's 400m hurdles event of the Asian Games on Thursday.
The 23-year-old is a 400m and 4X400m relay runner specialist and was part of the team that won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games last month.
Ashwini, who started running 400m hurdle in May at the National Open Athletic meet in Kochi, is only the third Indian to win a gold medal in this category.
MD Valsamma was the first Indian woman to win the 400m hurdles in 1982 New Delhi Asiad, while the legendary PT Usha repeated the show in 1986 at Seoul.
While Ashwini raced away with her first international individual gold medal in 400m hurdle, her compatriot Jauna Murmu was not so lucky as she missed the bronze by a whisker after clocking a personal best of 56.88.
Jauna was 0.05 points behind third-placed Satomi Kubokura of Japan. Chinese Wang Xing won the silver.
Earlier in the day, Tintu Luka won the bronze medal in the women's 800 metres event of the track and field competitions at the Asian Games on Thursday.
Tintu, who had a disappointing finish in the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, led the pack right from the start, but couldn't keep pace in the last 50 metres and finished third with a timing of 2:01.36 seconds.
The gold went to Kazhakstan's Margarita Matsko with her personal best timing of 2:00.29 secs while Chinese Truong Thanh Hang with a timing of 2:00.91 secs grabbed the silver.
Tintu's compatriot Sinimole Paulose finished seventh in 2:06.95 secs.
======================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment