Sport

Francis wins men’s 100m in record time

— Photo: AFP

QATAR’S HEROES: Qatar’s Samuel Francis (left), who won the men’s 100m in record time, poses with compatriot and bronze medallist Alwaleed Abdullah.

AMMAN: P.J. Vinod put up a strong performance on the opening day of the decathlon action and was in third place after three events in the Asian athletics championships here on Friday.

The 28-year-old Kerala athlete had a personal best 10.79 in the 100 metres, 7.40m in long jump and 13.05m in shot put to be on 2488 points.

Iranian Hadi Sepehrzad was in the lead with 2565 while Qatarii Ahmed Hassan Moussa was lying second with 2499 points.

The other Indian in the field, National record holder Jora Singh was lying last with 2146 points.

An Asian record in the men’s 100 metres by the 20-year-old Qatari of Nigerian origin, Samuel A. Francis, marked the second day of championships at the Amman International Stadium here on Thursday.

Francis timed 9.99 secs to better Japanese Koji Ito’s 1998 Bangkok Asian Games mark of 10.00s. Making his Asian debut as an "import" in Qatari colours, Francis had given notice of his prowess with a championships record of 10.18s in the heats on Wednesday. On Thursday he simply ran away from the rest past the half-way mark.

Japanese Ueno Masahide was second, well behind, at 10.26s while Qatari Alwaleed Abdullah took the bronze in 10.30s. Defending champion Yahya Al-Kahes of Saudi Arabia finished last while Asian Games champion Yahya Ibrahim Hassan, also of Saudi Arabia, went out in the semifinals.

Susanthika Jayasinghe won the women’s 100m gold without a challenge, as was to be expected, in a personal best 11.19, but that was aided by a wind of 3.1m/s.

India did not have things its way on the second day though the day produced two more silvers and a bronze for the country.

J.J. Shobha and Susmita Singha Roy expectedly took the silver and bronze behind Kazakh Irina Naumenko in the heptathlon.

Shobha’s better showing in shot put (12.56m)and javelin (40.47m) helped her claim the silver ahead of the Bengal girl who had 11.17m and 33.02m respectively in the two events.

India’s distance runners, Surendra Singh and Santosh Kumar were lapped by the Qatari and Bahrain runners in the 10,000 metres. Surendra finished fifth (31: 05.68)and Santosh sixth (31:16.43)among seven finishers. Qatari Abdullah Ahmad Hassan won in 29:45.95.

Mohammed Al-Khuwailidi of Saudi Arabia, a last-minute entry, won the long jump title with a wind-aided 8.16 metres. He had two other jumps of eight or more. 8.16m. He had two other jumps of eight metres or more. Another Saudi Arabian, three-time Asian champion Hussein Taher Al-Sabee withdrew at the last minute leaving Khuwailidi as the favourite.

Kuwaiti Saleh Al Haddad, with 8.05m, coming in the last round, claimed the silver while Chinese Li Runrun with 7.84 metres, took the bronze. Almost all jumps including those of the medal winners, were wind-aided.

Thursday’s results: