India win one silver, three bronze in Asian athletics

India won one silver and three bronze medals on day one of the 14th Asian Athletics Championships, in Colombo on Friday, as China dominated the day, with Gu Yaan winning the women's hammer throw with a new championship record.

China's Li Yanfeng bagged a second gold for China in the discus throw.

India's Harwant Kaur and Swaranjit Kaur finished second and third in the event, registering distances of 57.60 metres and 55.05 metres respectively, behind Li's effort of 60.06 metres.

Earlier, Hardeep Kaur gave India its first medal at the championships. She registered a distance of 57.82 metres in the women's hammer throw, which fetched her the bronze medal.

The 25-year-old national champion from Punjab, who had cleared 61.56 metres at the Punjab National Games last year, could only manage 57.82 meters, though it was better than her effort at the Commonwealth Games.

At Manchester, she failed to qualify for the final, missing the qualifying mark by a whisker as she hurled the iron ball to a distance of 55.98 metres and finished behind Scotland's Mhairi Walters, who qualifed with an effort of 56.03 metres.

Twenty-year-old Gu's performance left her competitors way behind, as she bettered her own Asian championship record of 61.86 metres, set at Fukuoka in 1998, by a long way. It also bettered the continental record of 68.06 metres, and beat her own previous personal best of 66.79 metres.

Lakade Jagannath earned India's last medal of the day, finishing third in the men's 10,000 metres. He was a good 20 seconds behind Hashim Ahmed Ibrahim of Qatar, who won the gold ahead of his countryman Awad Aman Majid.

India's J J Shobha ran an impressive 200 metres in the women's heptathlon late in the day to surge ahead from a lowly fifth position at the end of three events to the second position.

Sri Lanka's star Susanthika Jayasinghe stormed into the women's 100 metres semi-final, recording the fastest timing of the day at 11.40 seconds. However, her team mate Sriyani Kulawansa failed to qualify.

India's Satbir Singh qualified for the men's 400 metres final, with a timing of 47.41 seconds. It was the seventh fastest among the eight qualifiers.

Hamdan Al Bishi of Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka's Rohan Pradeep Kumara topped the three heats in terms of timings.

Sagardeep Kaur kept alive India's hopes in the 400 metre women's event, making it to the final, finishing fourth in her heat.

The women's discus, however, had no record-breaking performance, but 26-year-old Swaranjit went to beat her peronal best of 50.51 metres by nearly 4.5 metres.

The men's 10,000 metres was a leisurely affair, as the duo from Qatar were untroubled in the last few laps. The home stretch saw 36-year-old Ibrahim make it a clear two seconds ahead of Majid (20). Jagannath was a distant third at 30 minutes 51.2 seconds.