Anil Kumar, women’s quartet strike gold

Ramachandran had set the tone for India with Manoj and David maintaining the lead throughout before Paramjit was overwhelmed.

The men’s sprint relay team earlier failed to finish in the medals bracket coming a poor fourth.

Long jumper Sanjay Kumar Ray leapt to a distance of 8.03 metres in the men’s event which saw Saudi Arabia’s Husain Alsabea setting a new meet record with 8.33m effort. A Rahman Nubi of Qatar (8.01) took bronze medal.

While men’s relay team let slip the gold from their grasp, their women counterparts excelled and for a good measure bettered the Championship record.

A perfect start from Paramjit laid the base and no way was Beenamol going to let slip the advantage. Their timing of 3:31.54 erased the existing meet record of 3:32.73 set by China four years ago.

Relay events seem to be good hunting grounds for theIndians as women’s 4×100 metre team of Anuradha Biswal, Vineeta Tripathi, Saraswati Dey and Rachita Mistry struck silver with a timing of 44.48 seconds.

The formidable Sri Lankan quartet of Tamara Saman Deepi, Pradeepa Herath, Nimmi de Soysa and Damayanti Darsha, clocked 44.23 seconds to clinch the gold medal. The Chinese team settled for bronze completing the race in 44.80 seconds.

Anuradha gave a good start while Vineeta consolidated the position and Saraswati did just what is expected from the third runner. Anchor Rachita was at her aggressive best after missing a medal in 200 metres sprint earlier in the day and ensured silver medal for India.

India sorely missed sprinter Anil Kumar, who was recovering from a muscle pull after winning silver in the 100 metre dash.

As the Indian team finished fourth, Thailand set a new Championship record of 38.80 seconds shadowing the earlier mark of 39.03 set by China in the previous Meet.