Tintu Luka finally strikes gold as India finishes 3rd at Asian Athletics Championships

Wuhan: Tintu Luka bagged her maiden gold in a major international event by winning the women’s 800m finals as India finished with five medals on the final day of competitions to sign off third in the 21st Asian Athletics Championships here today. India secured a medal haul of 4 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze in the championships to finish third behind China (15, 13, 13) and Qatar (7, 2, 1). Japan (4, 3, 11) and Bahrain (3, 3, 2) finished fourth and fifth respectively. [caption id=“attachment_2284306” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Tintu Luka. AFP[/caption] This was India’s best finish after 2007 in Amman, Jordan where the country was placed second. National record holder Luka clocked her season’s best timing of 2:01.53 to clinch the gold at Wuhan Sports Center. China’s Zhao Jing (2:03.40) took the silver while Sri Lankan Nimali Klarachchige (2:03.94) won the bronze. This was 26-year-old Luka’s first individual title in a major international event after breaking into the scene in 2008-09 with a lot of promise under the tutelage of the legendary P T Usha. She had won gold as part of the 4x400m relay teams in both 2013 Asian Championships and 2014 Asian Games. Her national record stands at 1:59.17 which she clocked at the Continental Cup in Croatia in 2010. Since then, she had been able to breach the two-minute mark on very few occasions. With the gold today, Luka has qualified for the Beijing World Championships in August as continental championship winner. She is yet to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics for which the standard is 2:01.00. In men’s 800m, Jinson Johnson bagged a silver with a time of 1:49.69 behind Qatar’s defending champion Musaab Bala 1:49.40. Japan’s Kawamoto Sho (1:50.50) took the bronze. Dharambir Singh and Srabani Nanda then added a bronze each in men’s and women’s 200m to make it a productive day for India. It was a memorable race for Dharambir though he had to satisfy with a bronze as his 20.66 secs effort eclipsed Anil Kumar’s 15-year-old 200m national record of 20.73 secs. For Srabani, who clocked her personal best of 23.54 secs to win the bronze, it was her first major international medal. India, however, suffered heartbreak as the women’s 4x400m relay quartet failed to defend the title they won in the last edition in 2013 and were pushed to second place by China. The Chinese team clocked 3:33.44 to Indians’ 3:33.81 while Kazakhstan won the bronze in 3:35.14. The Indian men’s 4x400m relay team finished fourth in 3:05.14. Qatari men took the gold clocking 3:02.50. Steeplechase gold medallist Lalita Babar’s aim to take a second medal ended in disappointment as she could not finish the 10,000m race. Incheon Asian Games winner Alia Mohamed Saeed (UAE) won the event in 31:52.29 ahead of Bahrain’s Eunice Chumba (32:22.29) and Numata Michi (32:44.57) of Japan. 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist Annu Rani finished fifth in women’s javelin throw with a disappointing effort of 51.26m. Qatar’s Femi Ogunode completed his sprint double in a superb 20.32 secs dash in 200m. He had won the 100m sprint on the second day of competitions. PTI