Sudha wins gold, India’s reign continues

Bhubaneswar, India clinched one gold through Sudha Singh in the women’s 3000m steeplechase event and four other medals to maintain their numero uno position on the third and penultimate day at the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships.
The 31-year-old Sudha won her race in 9 min 59.47s to grab the lone gold for India to steal the limelight in front of a huge crowd at the Kalinga Stadium. It was Sudha’s first gold in her fourth attempt in the Asian Championships. Anu Raghavan added a silver in the women’s 400m hurdles, while woman triple jumper NV Sheena, 400m hurdler Jabir MP and the women’s 4x100m relay team grabbed a bronze each as India took one gold, one silver and three bronze today.
With one day left in the championship, India remained on top of the medal tally with 7 gold, 4 silver and 9 bronze.
China are at the second spot with 5 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze while Iran are third with 4 gold and 1 bronze.
Sudha, who had also won a silver each in the 2009, 2011 and 2013 editions, was a gold medal contender in the absence of compatriot Lalita Babar and Bahrain’s world and Asian record holder Ruth Jebet.
The UP athlete broke away around the halfway mark and left all her rivals way behind to win the gold. It was a creditable sub-10 minute win for Sudha who has been away from training for several months after she suffered from swine flu on her return from the Rio Olympics.
Raghavan then gave India the second medal of the day with a fine show in the women’s 400m hurdles as she clocked 57.22s, behind favourite Nguyen Thi (56.14s) of Vietnam.
Dutee wins bronze in 4×100
Dutee Chand grabbed her second bronze of the championships as she anchored the 4x100m relay team to third place in 44.57s. The other members of the quartet were Srabani Nanda, Himashree Roy and Merlin K Joseph. Kazakhstan took the gold in 43.53s while China won the silver in 44.50s. In the women’s long jump, Sheena grabbed the bronze with her final effort of 13.42m. Jabir then added an unexpected bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles, clocking a personal best of 50.22s behind Eric Shawn Cray (49.57s) of Philippines and Chen Chieh (49.75) of Chinese Taipei.
However, in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, Naveen Kumar and Durga Das Budha finished a disappointing seventh and eighth in 9:02.95s and 9:04.05s.