India’s athletes returned with a rich haul of eight medals at the Asian Grand Prix in Taipei, which concluded on Sunday.
Mohammed Anas won gold in the men’s 400 metres event with a time of 45.69 seconds while Om Prakash Karhana also won gold in the men’s shot put event with a throw of 19.58 metre.
Manpreet Kaur (women’s shot put), Tintu Luka (women’s 800 metre), Jinson Johnson (men’s 800 metre) and Dutee Chand (women’s 100 metre) bagged a silver each while Neeraj Chopra (men’s javelin throw) and MR Poovamma (women’s 400 metre) settled for a bronze each.
Shot putter Manpreet Kaur, who had smashed her own national record to win the gold in the first leg with a throw of 18.86m, had to settle for a silver with an effort of 17.38 metre, behind Song Jiayuan (17.46m) of China. She had also won a silver in the second leg.
In the women’s 800 metre event, national record holder Luka clocked a below-par 2:03.97 to finish second behind Gayanthika Thushari of Sri Lanka who clocked 2:03.87. Luka had also won a silver each in the first two legs.
In the men’s 800 metre event, Jinson Johnson clocked 1:51:35 to win a silver. He had also won a silver in the first leg before finishing eighth in the second leg.
The fourth silver for India was won by Dutee Chand in the women’s 100 metre dash with a time of 11.52 secs. Dutee had won a bronze in the first leg and a silver in the second leg.
Junior world record holder javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra settled for a bronze with a below-par throw of 79.90 metre.
Chopra had qualified for the IAAF World Championships in the second leg with a silver-winning effort of 83.32m. He had also won a silver in the first leg. Chopra had thrown the spear to a distance of 86.48m to win the gold in the Junior World Championships last year.
The second bronze for India was won by Poovamma, running in her first race of the year, in women’s 400m as she clocked 53.11 secs. “Considering it was my first big race of the season, I am satisfied with the performance,” said Poovamma, in a release from the GoSports Foundation. “Although the timing could have been better, the medal will give me a lot of belief going into the Indian Grand Prix Series in less than 10 days’ time.”
India had won seven medals (one gold, four silver, two bronze) in the first leg on April 24 and six (one gold, four silver, two bronze) in the second leg on April 27.
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