The Hindu : Bahadur Singh gives India its first gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 19, 2002

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Bahadur Singh gives India its first gold

By Abhijit Sen Gupta

An exhausted Damayanthi Darsha of Sri Lanka about to win the women's 400 mts race in the Asian GP meet in Hyderabad on Saturday. She managed to hold off a strong challenge from India's K.M. Beenamol (left). — Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

HYDERABAD MAY 18. As expected Bahadur Singh Sagoo gave India its first gold when he chalked up a distance of 19.32 mts in the men's shot put event in the Asian Grand Prix athletic meet at the GMC Balayogi athletic stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.

The men's shot put event saw a clean sweep by India as Navpreet Singh took the silver with a heave of 19.01 while Kuldeep Mann took the bronze with 18.05.

Bahadur's winning effort came in his second attempt. Navpreet challked up his best effort in the third throw. Kuldeep Mann's third attempt gave him the bronze. The three medals gave India a grand start in the meet and continued India's traditional dominance in this event.

Damayanthi Darsha's determination and strength enabled her to hold off a stiff challenge from India's K.M. Beenamol in the women's 400 mts final.

This was the much-awaited clash and all eyes were on the Sri Lankan, who is the reigning Asian champion, and the promising Beenamol who had emerged as a strong challenger.

Damayanthi decided to go flat out from the very start and came abreast of Beenamol who was running in the next lane by the end of the first curve itself. In the backstraight Damayanthi overtook Beenamol but going into the last curve Beenamol came up with a burst of speed.

For sometime it looked as if Beenamol may just overtake her Sri Lankan rival but that was when Damayanthi seemed to bring out an extra effort. Coming into the home straight Damayanthi was clearly struggling to stay ahead but nevertheless managed to hold off Beenamol till the finish. At the end of the race an exhausted Damayanthi lay for several minutes on the track.

The men's 800 metres saw K.M. Binu come up with his best efffort so far of 1m 47.52 secs but it was still not good enough to give him the gold.

The race saw Sanjeev T.M. acting as a pace maker at the beginning. Sanjeev went into the lead at the start and Binu followed close behind. That was the position at the end of the first lap. But after 500 mts Sanjeev dropped out and Binu took over the lead. On the last curve Mikhail Kolganov of Kazakhstan overtook Binu.

But Binu came up with a strong kick in the home straight to once again overtake the Kazakh runner. But ironically it was Korea's Lee Jae Hoon who came up from outside and charged to the tape first followed closely by Binu and another Korean Kim Soon Hyung.

The results: men: 400 hurdles: 1. Badar Aman Al Fuazi (Kuwait) 49.13s, 2. Yevgeny Melshenko (Kaz) 49.66, 3. Chen Tein (Taipei)51.72. 800m: 1. Lee Jae Hoon (Korea) 1m 47.40s, 2. K.M. Binu (Ind) 1m 47.52s, 3. Kim Soon Hyung (Korea) 1m 47.91s. Shot Put: 1. Bahadur Singh Sagoo (Ind) 19.32 mts, 2. Navpreet Singh (Ind) 19.01 mts, 3. Kuldeep Mann (Ind) 18.05mts.

Women: 400 mts: 1. K.V. Damayanthi Darsha (SL) 51.87s, 2. K.M.Beenamol (Ind) 51.96s, 3. Alena Petrova (Trkm) 53.81s.

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