Kavita Raut fetches India`s 1st medal in Asian Athletics

Guangzhou (China): Kavita Raut opened India`s account with a bronze in women`s 500m race on the opening day of the 18th Asian Athletics Championships here today. Kavita, who was preferred to last edition silver winner Preeja Sridharan, came up with her personal best effort of 16:05.19 to win the bronze. She bettered her earlier best of 16:13.17 she had clocked this season. As expected, Chinese Xue Fei, who had the season`s best timing, won in 16:05.19. Bahrain`s Chalchissa Tejitu Daba won the silver in 16:05.45. Another Indian, Jhuma Khatun finished seventh, clocking 17:13.10, in the nine-woman final at the Guangdong Olympic Stadium. In other events, all the Indians who took field today qualified for the next rounds from their respective heats. Sathya Suresh ran his personal best of 10.55 secs to finish second in men`s 100m heat number three to qualify for the semifinals. Compatriot Abdul Najeeb Qureshi also qualified for the semifinals after he finished third in heat number four with a timing of 10.60 sec. Their women counterparts, Manjunath Jyothi and Narayana Sharadha, qualified for the 100m semifinals. Jyothi was second in heat number two with an effort of 11.72 secs while Sharadha was third in heat number three with 12.06 secs. In men`s 1500m, Chatholi Hamza and Sunil Kumar qualified for tomorrow`s final. Hamza was second in heat number one with 3:46.24 while Sunil was fifth in heat number two with 3:47.90. In men`s 400m, Bibin Mathew and Shaikh Mortaja qualified for the final. Mathew won heat number three with an effort of 46.59 secs while Mortaja was third in heat number two with 46.98 secs. G Pramila was languishing at sixth in women`s heptathlon after the completion of four out of seven events with an aggregate of 2981 points. In women`s long jump final, MA Prajusha and Reshmi Bose finished sixth and seventh respectively with below par efforts of 6.15m and 6.13m respectively. India are being represented by a strong squad of 60 in the biannual continental competition. They finished second behind China in the last edition in Amman, Jordan, bagging five gold, five silver and five bronze. Asia`s athletics superpowers like China, Japan and the West Asian countries, who dominate long distance events, are in full strength this time, unlike in the last edition. Bureau Report