Incheon, It was once again a case of so near and yet so far for India’s Tintu Luka who, despite leading in most of the women’s 800 metres final race, was overtaken by Kazakhstan’s Margarita Mukasheva in the last stages and had to settle for the Asian Games silver here on Wednesday.
Margarita set a new Asiad record of a minute and 59.02 seconds to take gold while China’s Zhao Jing won the bronze in 1:59.48 at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium.
Tintu timed her season’s best of 1:59.19 but ran out of steam in the last 50m to let the gold slip away through her fingers.
The P.T. Usha protege had also suffered a similar fate four years ago at Guangzhou when she led the pack right from the start but could not keep pace in the last 50m to finish third.
The other Indian in the fray, Sushma Devi also clocked her season’s best of 2:01.92 but came home fifth.