Women's 4x400m relay team strikes Gold, Sinimole bags 1500m Bronze

Doha, Dec 12 (UNI) India finally broke the duck on the final day of the athletics competitions with the quartet of Satti Geeta, Pinki Parmanaik, K Chitra and Manjit Kaur winning the Gold in 4x400m relay, while Sinimole Paulose bagged the 1500m Bronze in the 15th Asian Games here today.

It was a spirited display by the Indian quartet in 4x400m where they timed 3:32.95 to win the Gold to pip Kazakhstan (3:33.86) -- comprising Marina Masiyonko, Viktoriya Yalovtseva, Tatyana Azarova and lga Tereshkoya -- and the Chinese (3:33.92) team consisting of Ling Han, Xiaoxiao Huang, Xiaoyin Tang and Xueji Li.

Earlier, Sinimole Faulose ran a brave race in a very strong field to win the 1500m Bronze while the 4x400m women relay team, pole vaulter and long distance runners came a cropper.

Sinimole, the 23-year old Kerala runner, finished third with a time of 4:15.09 in a race which was won by favourite Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Baharain (4:08.63), while Yurik Kobayashi of Japan took the Silver in 4:14.96.

Sinimole had earlier finished fifth in 800m race in which she had clcked her personal best of 2:03.76.

This evening, she, however, could not match her 1500m best of 4:14.7 which she had timed at Colombo earlier this year.

Still it was a very determined effort by the dimunitive runner who showed no sign of awe while running along side the best of the continent.

Sinimole ran a technical race. She paced herself well and in the last round got herself among the medal winners and managed to pip Vietnam's Thanh Hang Troung for the Bronze. Troung clocked personal best of 4:17.66 for the fourth place.

Another Indian, OP Jaisha, whose name was entered for this event did not take part in it.

Meanwhile, India's medal hopes in women's 4x400m relay were shattered when the quartet of Jyothi Manjunath, Deepthi Jose, Nidhi and Poonam Tomar clocked season's best of 46.29 only to finish fifth.

The Indians lost the medal because of their technical fault. They had a false start and were warned and that effected their next start which was bit late and that made all the difference.

Chinese athletes took the Gold with a season best timing of 44.33, followed by Japan (44.67) and Chinese Taipei (45.86).

In women's pole vault, V S Surekha finished sixth among seven athletes with a below-par performance as she could only clear 3.80.

Surekha's personal best is 4.08 but this evening she failed all in her three efforts to clear the 4.00m mark.

China won the Gold through Gao Shtuying (4.30) in the event, followed by Malaysia's Samsu Roslinda (4.30) and Japan;s Ikuko Mishikori (4.15).

In men's 5000m race, the Indian duo of Sunil Kumar and Surender Kumar Singh clocked personal best timings but yet finished fifth and sixth respectively among 13 runners. Sunil returned 13:58.80 while Surender Kumar Singh clocked 13.59.05.

Qatar's James Kwalia Kurui Kurui took the Gold in 13:38.90, folowed by M Salem Jawher of Bahrain (13:41.10) and Sultan Khamis Zaman of Qatar (13:45.91).

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