Pinky Pramanik strikes double gold, Anju disappoints

Bangalore, May 22 (UNI) Pinky Pramanik of India struck double gold, while ace leaper Anju B George, coming back after an injury, disappointed even as Indians baged 17 medals including five Gold, seven Silver and five Bronze in the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix circuit held at Sree Kanteerava Stadium here today.

Wen Yongi of China emerged as the fastest runner with a timing of 10.42 secs in 100 meters.

Pinky, contnuing her winning spree from Bangkok leg, grabbed gold in 400 m and 800 m run in resplendent style, while the other golds were won by the Indian men Navpreet Singh (Shot Put), Harishankar Roy (High Jump) and Maha Singh (Long Jump).

The Eastern Railway star Pinky who had won Gold in 800 m and Silver in 400 m in the Bangkok leg, improving upon her performance upstaged first leg winner Olga Tereshkova of Kazakhstan. She won with a timing of 52.46 seconds trouncing the Kazakh who could only manage 53.25 seconds. Manjit Kaur, who is actually the top one lapped in the country had to be content with Bronze with a timing of 53.52 seconds.

Pinky had earlier won the 800 m race with stopping the clock at two min 04.42 secs.

Anju, who was yet to recover fully from her heel injury, found it hard to match Kazakh Olga Rypakova who won the Gold leaping to a distance of 6.39 meters. The Indian star's best effort was only 6.35 Meters which fetched her the Silver, while Torres Marestella of Philipines took the Bronze with 6.13 meters.

Navpreet Singh heaved the iron ball to a distance of 19.84 meter releaging favourite and Chinese national record holder Zhang Qi to second place while Ahmad Gulam of Kuwait finished third.

Mahan continued his fine run from the Bangkok leg to win the gold again in Long Jump with a distance of 7.69 meter, Li Xin of China took the Silver, while Shiv Shankar Yadav of India took Bronze. This was a good improvement from the first leg where he had cleared 7.55 meters.

Hari Shankar too repeated his Gold winning performance clearing 2.21 meters in High Jump. Xu Xin of China finished with Silver with 2.18 Meters, while first leg winner Jean Claude Rattat of Libya had to be satisfied with Bronze (2.18 meters).

UNI RS MSP DKS KN2327