NEW DELHI, OCT 15: Ace sprinter Anil Kumar struck two golds in the men's showpiece races, and despite SAF Games bronze medallist Saraswati Dey getting pushed to the second spot, India claimed 12 of the 14 gold medals on offer to dominate the 3rd Raja Bhalendra Singh International Athletic Meet here today.Anil Kumar, the fastest man in India, won the 100 metres in 10.67 seconds in one of the closely contested races in which Iran's Yousef Dehmiri (10.80) and Ajay Raj Singh (10.83) of India followed for second and third spots.Kathmandu SAF Games double gold medallist Anil Kumar then won the 200m in 21.28 secs to take his second gold of the day.Anil was given a tough fight by his compatriots - international Jata Shankar and Anand Menzes - but he showed his mettle by surging into lead just 50 metres from the finish line.With sprint queen PT Usha taking part only in 200m, Saraswati Devi was the overwhelming favourite to win the 100m. Saraswati, who won the gold at the Salwan international meet three days ago, ran a poor 12.09 sec to settle for silver as her compatriot Vinita Tripathi (12.05) edged ahead in a photo-finish. India's vijayalakshmi (12.13) took the bronze.SAF Games triple gold medallist and ace distance runner Sunita Rani kept her reputation intact by winning her favourite 1500m Race in 4min 17.11sec, crossing the finishing line way ahead of her Belarussian rival Tatyana Buloickyk (4:21.26). Madhuri Singh (4:24.24) came third to take the bronze.While the Indians dominated on the tracks in the 14-event meet, Belarus' discus thrower Leonid Tcherevko won the first gold medal among the foreign athletes by hurling discus to 56.70 metres.Shakti Singh's effort of 55.60m, well below his national record of 61.72, fetched him silver medal while Hridya Nand (54.16) settled for bronze as the Belarus thrower stamped his authority winning two gold medals in a space of three days.India's lone disappointment in the track event came in the 3000m in which Iran's Jafar Baba Khani won the gold after putting all his energy into the last lap to edge past N Gojen Singh, who led for seven laps before running out of steam.Khani clocked 8min 10.63 sec to win the race while Gojen Singh (8:13.14) and Satish Kumar (8:16.37) took the silver and bronze medals respectively.PT Usha, belied apprehension of pulling out and took part in this season's last meet in the 200m event. She was home in 24.10 secs leading from the start line. MK Syamanthagam (24.38) and Paramjeet Kaur (25.19) completed a 1-2-3 finish for India.National champion Neelam J Singh hurled discus to 56.04m to quell any challenge from Belarus' Lioudmila Starovoitova as Indian women had a field day today. Following Neelam were Harjeet Kaur (54.37) and Saroj Kumar (51.78) as the hosts finished with a tally of 12 golds, 11 silvers and 12 bronze medals.
