Manjeet Kaur wins Silver, Gowda disappoints

Doha, Dec 10 (UNI) Continental champion Manjit Kaur ran a below par race but still managed to win a Silver while discus thrower Vikas Gowda disappointed finishing sixth in the athletics competition of the Asian Games here today.

In women's 400m race, Punjab Police officer Manjeet timed 52.17 for second place while Kazakhstan's Olga Tereshkova won the Gold in 51.86 while Japan's Asami Tanno took the Bronze clocking 53.04.

Strong contender Pinki Paramanik of finished fourth, timing 53.06.

Pinki got bit rattled after being warned for the false start and when the race started she took off a friction of second late and that made all the difference.

Twenty-four-year-old Jalandhar-based Manjeet, who had a personal best of 51.03 and season's best of 52.06 which she timed during the trials prior to the departure for the Asiad, ran a modest race in a lacklustre field.

The race was hardly exciting as once Olga took the lead she maintained it throughout though the Indian tried hard but near the home stretch Manjit gave up as the Kazhak increased the lead.

Pinki charged midway through the race but her attempt was futile and she finished fourth.

In the men's discus throw, India's best bet Vikas Gowda was a big let down as he finished sixth with a much below par throw of 58.28.

The 23-year-old US-based Gowda had a career best mark of 64.69 which he had achieved at Inchon, Korea last year. The repeat of that performance would have earned the Mysore-born thrower the Gold because winner of the title, Iran's Ehsan Hadadi, claimed the first spot with a season best throw of 63.79.

Hadadi had set an Asian record with 65.25 at Inchon last year where Gowda had finished second.

Gowda started poorly with a throw of 49.56, followed it by 57.74, 57.32, 58.05, 58.28 and 56.76.

Rashid Shafi B Al Dosari of Qatar took the Silver with his season best of 62.11, which he achieved in his last attempt and Saudi Arabia's Sultan Mubarak Al Dawodi bagged bronze with 60.82, coming in third attempt.

In men's 1500m, India's Hamza Chatholi clocked his personal best of 3:43.69 but that was enough only for him to take the seventh place. The 25-year-old service man ran a good race by his standards but the field was too strong and host country's Najm Daham Bashair thrilled the big crowd by winning the Gold in 3:38.06 pipping the more fancied rival Bahrain duo of Belall Mansoor Belal (3:38.08) and Rashid Ramzui (3:38.91).

Earlier in women's 200m first round heat, India's K Chitra Soman failed to qualify as she timed a below-par 24.74 to finish fourth in a six-runner field.

Chitra's personal best is 24.04 and a repeat of that would have enabled her to qualify as the first two qualifiers -- Guzel Khubbieva of Uzbekistan and Japan's Sakie Nobuoka -- timed 23.54 and 24.56 respectively.

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