Date:13/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/13/stories/2008061353562000.htm

Sport - Athletics

Savita, Jasdeep bag medals

JAKARTA: Savita Dhankhar won a silver and Jasdeep Singh Dhillon a bronze as India opened its tally in the 13th Asian junior athletics championships that began at the Madya Stadium here on Thursday.

Savita took the silver in the women’s 3000 metres behind Japanese Michi Numata (9:33.86) in 9:39.83 which was nearly 20 seconds better than her best performance back home while Jasdeep claimed the bronze in men’s shot put with a distance of 18.43 seconds.

Uzbeks Gigoriy Kamulya (19.96) and Sergey Dementev (18.43) won the gold and silver.

Jayapal Hemashree went through to the final of the women’s 100m hurdles, clocking 14.70s that qualified her as the “best loser.”

In the 100m, Shilpa Chamblon, a trainee at the Usha School of Athletics, failed to progress from the heats clocking 12.52 seconds that turned out to be the 15th fastest time.

In the men’s 100 metres, Anoop P. K., despite clocking 11.13 secs in the heats, qualified for the semifinals as one of the “best losers.”

In the men’s 400 metres, the two Indian runners, Jithin Paul (49.27s) and Inderjeet Singh (50.07s) timed much poorer than what they had registered at home and were eliminated in the first round, ending overall 10th and 13th respectively. Paul had a 47.70 while Inderjeet had timed 48.05 at home.

The results: Men: Shot put: 1. Grigoriy Kamulya (Uzb) 19.96, 2. Sergey Dementev (Uzb)18.43, 3. Jasdeep Singh Dhillon (Ind) 18.04, 4. Naveen Kumar (Ind) 17.84.

Women: 3000m: 1. Michi Numata (Jpn) 9:33.86, 2. Savita Dhankhar (Ind) 9:39.83, 3. Victoria Baludina (Kgz) 9:41.21; Triple jump: 1. Li Yianmei (Chn) 13.60, 2. Natalia Londa Marie (Ina) 13.24, 3. Hu Qian (Chn) 13.01; Discus: 1. Xi Shangxue (Chn) 52.63, 2. Jin Yuanyuan (Chn) 52.40, 3. Li Wenhua (Tpe) 52.15.