Sport - Asian Games   

Beenamol, Bahadur Singh strike gold

By K.P. Mohan

Bahadur Singh, who won the shot put gold waves Indian National flag at the Busan main stadium.

BUSAN OCT. 8. This looks like developing into an Indian athletics fairytale. Six medals in one day, with two gold medals to go as the icing, was something beyond anyone's imagination and expectations. But that is how it turned out for India on the second day of the Asian Games athletics programme on Tuesday.

As shot putter Bahadur, first, and then K.M. Beenamol won a gold each, there were beaming faces all around in the Indian camp. A silver each by heptathlete Soma Biswas and 800m runner Madhuri Singh and a bronze by shot putter Shakti Singh and heptathlete J.J. Shobha completed the day's tally for the country.

As usual, there were disappointments, too, Shakti Singh managing, with some difficulty, just the bronze in shot put, Saraswati Saha finishing seventh in the 100 metres, Rachita Mistry ending up last in her 100m heat, hammer thrower Pramod Tiwari finishing sixth (64.54m) and Paramjeet Singh going out of contention in the 400 metres.

For those unfamiliar with Beenamol's tactics in the 800 metres, the sight of India's golden hope trailing in fifth place at 500 metres and even on the home straight might have been a shock. But as P.T. Usha was to observe later, an opening lap of 63.8 (unofficial), with the other Indian, Madhuri Singh in the lead, was a sure indication that Beenamol was going to win.

For, the Kerala girl, was bound to show her power and pace on the home straight. That is exactly what happened. As Madhuri pulled away from about 120 metres out, Beenamol came wide of the pursuing pack onto the home straight and with about a little more than 50 metres to go, left everyone behind.

Madhuri held off the threat from Ubzek Zamira Amirova and Chinese Wang Yuanping for the silver, the Uttar Pradesh woman's first medal at the continental level. The timings were ordinary, 2:04.17 for Beenamol, 2:04.94 for Madhuri and 2:05.05 for Amriova. All three had run below 2:03 this season.

In the same year as Beenamol won the 800m in the Asian juniors, Bahadur Singh also had come into National limelight. Not by winning the shot put title but by winning the discus gold. The switch from discus to shot put came in 1994, on advice from coaches including the present National coach, Bahadur Singh, incidentally the man who won the last shot put gold for India in 1982.

Till this day, however, the junior Bahadur had been in the shadows of Shakti Singh, finishing fourth in Bangkok as well as in the Fukuoka Asian meet in 1998 and having the dubious distinction of an all-foul effort in the Jakarta Asian meet in 2000.

K.M. Beenamol (left) and Madhuri Singh display their medals after claiming women's 800m gold and silver respectively at the Asian Games on Tuesday. — Photos: V. Sudershan

On a day when the circle troubled everyone, with a rash of fouls spoiling what could otherwise have been a keen competition, Bahadur had just one valid throw, his winning one of 19.03 that came on his second attempt. Saad Bilal Mubarak of Qatar, who was the only one capable of challenging the Indians, opened with an 18.98 but failed to better that. He had two fouls but did not make an issue of the circle, the opinion about which varied from being `slippery' to being `rough'.

Shakti was a shock in this low-grade contest. But then he had quite often performed below par in competitions abroad, even while winning a medal. He had a silver last time at 18.81 but today his best was 18.27, on his fifth attempt. He, too, had three fouls. He tied with Kuwaiti Ahmed Gholoum at 18.27 but on his last throw had an 18.16. The Kuwaiti's second best was 18.05 and that decided the bronze.

Disappointment was there for the Bengal girl Soma Biswas, who hauled herself up from the third place to the silver status in heptathlon with a personal best 2:11.02 in the 800 metres. In the end, she was just 12 points shy of the gold medallist, Chinese Shen Shengfei's tally of 5911. Had she run 1.5s faster in the 800m she could have got the gold. Or perhaps, as she herself noted, if only her long jump (5.94) and shot put (12.02) were better. "I am always unlucky'' was the 24-year-old's comment.

This was only the second silver for the country in the multis in the women's section, Angel Mary Joseph having claimed the pentathlon silver in 1978. It must have been heart-breaking for Shobha to miss the silver by 29 points. As the final event, the 800m started, Shobha was in with a chance to edge the defending champion, Shen Shengfei, for the gold. If she could run the two laps about five seconds faster than the Chinese, that is. In the event, she ran only about two seconds faster, but Soma had displaced her from the second place with her fine 800m effort. Svetlana Kazanina of Kazakhstan, the Asian champion, finished fourth with 5757.

Though from the Indian viewpoint everything paled in front of the rich medal haul, from an overall perspective, the stunning defeat of Japanese Nobuhara Asahara by the Saudi Arabian, Abdul Jamal Al-Saffar in the 100 metres, Susanthika Jayasinghe's effortless victory in the women's 100 metres and Haadi Soua'an Al-Somaily's oustanding 400m hurdles triumph over Asian champion Faraj Mubarak Al-Nubi of Qatar and World bronze medallist Dai Tamesue of Japan were the highlights of the second day.

Asahara had a poor start and though he made up considerably there was no stopping Al-Saffar, the Asian champion. The Japanese had shared the top spot of the season with a 10.05 while Al-Saffar, after retaining his Asian title in Colombo, was always considered a worthy rival. The Saudi clocked 10.24, Asahara 10.29 and Chinese Chen Haijian 10.34.

Susanthika after setting a Games record of 11.15s — she had a 11.16 in the heats — said that for her winning the 200m was not that much of a question as to what she would clock while completing the sprint double.

The results:

Men: 100m: 1. Abdul Jamal Al-Saffar (KSA) 10.24s; 2. Nobuhara Asahara (Jpn) 10.29; 3. Chen Haijian (Chn) 10.34.

400m hurdles: Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily (KSA) 48.42 (GR, old 49.13); 2. Faraj Mubarak Al-Nubi (Qat) 48.98; 3. Dai Tamesue (Jpn) 49.29.

Pole vault: 1. Grigoriy Yegorov (Kaz) 5.40m; 2. Satoru Yasuda (Jpn) 5.40; 3. Fumiaki Kobayashi (Jpn) 5.20.

Shot put: 1. Bahadur Singh (Ind) 19.03m; 2. Saad Bilal Mubarak (Qat) 18.98; 3. Shakti Singh (Ind) 18.27.

Hammer: 1. Koji Murofushi (Jpn) 78.72 (GR, old 78.57); 2. Hiroaki Doi (Jpn) 69.57; 3. Ye Kuigang (Chn) 68.18.

Women: 100m: 1. Susanthika Jayasinghe (Sri) 11.15 (GR, old 11.16); 2. Lyubov Perepelova (Uzb) 11.38; 3. Qin Wangping (Chn) 11.51.

10,000m: 1. Sun Yingjie (Chn) 30:28.26 (GR, old 30:50.34); 2. Kayoko Fukushi (Jpn) 30:50.81; 3. Xing Huina (Chn) 31:42.58.

800m: 1. K.M. Beenamol (Ind) 2:04.17; 2. Madhuri A. Singh (Ind) 2:04.94; 3. Zamira Amirova (Uzb) 2:05.05.

400m hurdles: 1. Natalya Torshina (Kaz) 56.13s; 2. Song Yinglan (Chn) 56.43; 3. Makiko Yoshida (Jpn) 56.68.

Heptathlon: 1. Shen Shengfei (Chn) 5911 pts; 2. Soma Biswas (Ind) 5899; 3. J.J. Shobha (Ind) 5870.

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