Date:15/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/15/stories/2008021560452100.htm

Sport - Athletics

Sinimole defends title

Doha: Sinimole Paulose defended her 1,500m title and in the process also made the grade for the World indoor championships as she opened India’s golden tally in the third Asian indoor athletics championships here on Thursday.

In a thin field, Sinimole won as expected, clocking 4:15.42 that bettered the World indoor championship qualifying mark of 4:16.00.

India’s second entry in the event that attracted just four runners, Sushma Devi, held off a strong challenge from Bahrain’s Sara Yaqoob Bekheet to win the silver in 4:22.78.

Anju George missed the gold medal by just one centimetre. She jumped 6.38m to be just behind Chinese Chen Yaling who took the gold with 6.39m. Anju had won the silver last time also.

India’s M.A. Prajusha, competing for the first time at this level, won the bronze with 6.09m in a field into which an unknown Syrian, Fadoua Bouza (5.56m) and a Qatari, Amina Almalki (3.60m) were brought in at the last moment to swell numbers.

Hari Sankar Roy ended up with a ‘no mark’ against his name in the high jump competition, won by Kazakhstan’s Sergey Zassimovich with a championship record of 2.24m.

Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan won the triple jump gold with a championship record of 14.23m. She did not compete in long jump.