Well-built athletes from Kazakhstan did their country proud by winning three gold medals while Sri Lanka sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe created a new meet record in the women's 100 metres as hosts India went goldless in the second Asian Grand Prix athletics meet at the G M C Balayogi stadium at Gachibowli in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Two new meet records were set amidst a poor performance by India, which claimed two silver and six bronze medals in various events.
Sri Lanka claimed two gold and four silver medals followed by Thailand, which clinched two gold, one silver and three bronze. Saudi Arabia won a gold, a silver and a bronze while Singapore had one gold and a silver and Iran also bagged one gold.
Though India failed to win a single gold its medal tally showed the highest -- two silver and six bronze.
The women's 100 metres saw Jayasinghe surge ahead to lodge an easy and expected win over Khubbieva Guzel of Uzbekistan and Orranut Klomdee of Thailand, creating a new meet record in the process, timing of 11.30 seconds.
Khubbieva and Orranut clocked 11.35 and 11.45 seconds respectively, which surpassed the existing meet record of 11.52, set by India's very own Saraswati Saha in Manila last year.
The other record was broken in an event much less watched than the women's 100 metres. The women's 800 metres was also witness to an amazing spectacle, the record being broken by not just one athlete but by a phenomenal three. Tatyana Rolanova of Kazakhstan timed 2:02.05 while Zamira Amirova of Uzbekistan and Tatyana Borisova of Kyrghystan recorded 2:02.82 and 2:03.75 respectively beating the old meet record of 2:04.13 seconds, which stood in the name of Wang Yuanping of China.
Jayasinghe's teammate Damayanti Darsha was not so lucky as Svetlana Bodritskaya of Kazakhstan beat her in the women's 400 metres.
Bodritskaya got off the blocks and moved into the lead at the end of the first bend. Darsha caught up with her with about 150 metres left. A keen tussle followed before ending in victory for Bodritskaya, who breasted the tape in 52.59 seconds.
Darsha timed 52.78 seconds. India's S Geetha finished third with a timing of 56.75 seconds.
In the women's 100 metres hurdles, Thailand's Trecia Roberts won the gold. Trecia took an early lead and was closely followed by Sri Lanka's Sriyani Kulawansa Fonseka and Soma Biswas of India. Trecia emerged triumphant with a time of 13.22 secs while silver medalist Sriyanti clocked 13.32 secs and Soma Biswas finished in 14.30 seconds.
The women's shot put yielded a gold and a silver for Singapore as Du Xianhui and Guirong Zhang heaved the iron ball to 18.38 metres and 17.84 metres respectively. Juthaporn Krasaeyan of Thailand was unable to repeat her winning performance of 18.05 metres at the last Asian championships and threw a distance of 16.10 metres, which saw her finish in third place.
India's dream of winning a gold in the men's 800 metres was ruined by Mohd Al Salhi of Saudi Arabia. His timing of 1.50.04 seconds secured him the gold while India's P.S.Primesh Kumar took bronze and Mikhail Kolganova of Kazakhstan the silver.
Kochsheeva Elena of Kazakhstan won the women's long jump with a leap of 6.62 metres. Torres Marestella of Filipino clinched the silver and the bronze was pocketed by Bobrovskaya Elena of Kyrghystan.
The silver was claimed by Zamira Amirova of Uzbekistan while bronze went to Tatyana Borisova of Kyrghystan.
In the discus throw for men, the gold was claimed by Abbas Samimi of Iran with a throw of 61.06 metres while India's Anil Kumar won silver and and Sultan M Al Dawodi of Saudi Arabia took the bronze.
In the javelin throw, Sergey Vaynov of Uzbekistan had a throw of 78.36 metres to claim gold while Ramandeep Singh and Jagdish Bishnoi of India claimed silver and bronze respectively.
UNI
