Kuldev pips Joseph and Abraham to take gold in 400m hurdle

Tapan Mohanta

Ranchi, Feb 20 (PTI) In a day of upsets, Asian Games goldmedallist Joseph Abraham and Commonwealth Games bronzemedalist Renjith Maheshwary had to settle for silver andbronze respectively in the athletics competitions here today.

Kuldev Singh provided the big surprise of the day 400mhurdler pushed national record holder Abraham of Kerala tosecond spot with a record timing to lead the golden run ofPunjab who clinched five yellow metals today.

There was another upset in the men''s discus throw whennational record holder Vikas Gowda had to retun empty-handedas he settled for fifth finish.

A timing of 50.31 seconds ensured Kuldev break the PShankar''s meet record of 51.37 as the ace 400m hurdler Abrahamclocked a poor 50.38 for the silver.

Satinder Singh of Punjab bagged the bronze with a timingof 50.39.

National record holder Maheshwary with a disappointingtiming of 16.09 settled for the bronze in triple jump asPunjab''s Arpinder Singh (16.62m) and Jharkhand''s AmirjeetSingh (16.10) grabbed the top two spots.

Services Sandeep Karan Singh (3:48.05) clinch the 1500mtitle while Uttarakhand''s Ravinder S Rautela (3:48.47) andKerala''s Sajeesh Joseph (3:48.91) took home silver and bronzerespectively.

Representing Jharkhand, Bengal high jumper Hari SankarRoy added to the hosts gold tally while Services Jitin CThomas and Tamil Nadu''s Benedict Starley settled for thesilver and bronze medals.

The trio cleared an identical 2.13m as the top threepositions were decided on countback at 2.10.

Rajasthan''s Vikas Poonia (53.47) won the men''s discusthrow title while Punjab''s Kirpal Singh (51.59) and UttarPradesh''s Anshu Rai (51.35) took home silver and bronze. Inthe women''s 400m hurdles, Andhra''s R Elavarasi (1:00.17),Kerala''s Anu R (1:00.69) and Jharkhand''s Soniya KA (1:00.75)bagged the top three places.

Punjab women athletes ruled the roost in the 1500m,heptathlon and discus throw clinching the yellow metals.

OP Jaisha stopped the clock at 4:24.14 for the 1500m goldwhile Haryana''s Sushma Devi (4:25.69) and Jharkhand''s JhumaKhatoon (4:27.07) bagged silver and bronze.

Navpreet Kaur logged 5079 points for the heptathlon titleas Kerala''s K D Sindhu (4844) and Tamil Nadu''s D Karpuramala(4728) took the silver and bronze.

Harwant Kaur bagged the fifth gold for Punjab in hurlingthe discus to 54.54 as Haryana''s Rinku Sangwan (46.50) andPunjab''s Baljit Kaur (44.65) took silver and bronze.