Twice as nice: India’s Mayookha Johnny wins a gold and silver at Asian Indoor Athletics Championships

Doha: India’s Mayookha Johnny on Saturday won her second medal – a silver in women’s triple jump – to add to her gold in long jump on the second day of Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha. Mayookha came up with an effort of 14.00m to finish second behind Olympian Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan who cleared a distance of 14.32m. Another Kazakh, Irina Ektova took the bronze with 13.48m. In an unfortunate incident, India’s multi-event specialist Swapna Barman, who originally finished second in Pentathlon, got disqualified following a protest lodged by Iranian team last night. After an overnight debate, the Jury of Appeal upheld the protest of Iran citing lane infringement by the Indian athlete in 800m – the fifth and last event of the Pentathlon. [caption id=“attachment_2635808” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Mayookha Johnny. AFP[/caption] Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Voronina won the gold with a five-event aggregate of 4,224 points. Iran’s Sepideh Hossein (3,828) and Japan’s Chie Kriyama (3,637) went home with the other medals. Earlier on Saturday, Mayookha fetched India a gold medal while winning the long jump event while sprinter Dutee Chand settled for a bronze after shattering national record in 60m dash. Mayookha controlled the long jump competition from the very outset and finished on top of the podium with a leap of 6.35m, an effort that propelled her to India’s first Asian indoor title in the event. Bui Thi Thu Thao of Vietnam took the silver with a 6.30m jump while Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan finished third with an effort of 6.22m. “Winning in Doha made me really happy, especially since I’m not used to competing indoors. However, I expected something better than 6.35m. But I’m not complaining at all. The Asian title is quite an achievement,” said Mayookha after winning the gold. Another Indian, M A Prajusha finished fifth with a jump of 6.15m. Dutee, meanwhile, won a bronze in women’s 60m dash with a time of 7.37 secs in the final. Earlier, she had set a national record while winning her heats in 7.28 secs. Viktoriya Zyabkina of Kazakhstan overcame a sluggish start to win the final race in a Championship record of 7.27 secs, well clear of China’s Yuan Qiqi (7.33 secs). Sugandha Kumari brought the third medal for India as she won a bronze in women’s 1500m with a time of 4:29.06. In women’s shot put, Manpreet Kaur (Jr) finished sixth with her best throw of 15.21m. In men’s high jump, Tejaswin Shankar failed to clear the opening height PTI