Gulab blooms with bronze

BANGKOK, DEC 13: Six years ago, at the Asian junior championships in New Delhi, Gulab Chand first gave the hint of his talent to win the ...

BANGKOK, DEC 13: Six years ago, at the Asian junior championships in New Delhi, Gulab Chand first gave the hint of his talent to win the gold medal in the 5,000 metres. Today, at the Thammasat University Sports Complex, the 25-year-old Railways employee emerged from the shadow of his senior teammate Bahadur Prasad to win a bronze. Gulab clocked a personal best 29:10.53 behind Japan8217;s Kenji Takao and Qatar8217;s Ibrahim Hashim Ahmed.

With the Chinese throwers not making a mistake, and Neelam Jaswant Singh herself falling short by more than four metres of her personal best, India had to be content with another bronze in women8217;s discus throw.

While Luan Zhili sent the disc soaring to 63.43m, Neelam may well have picked a medal of better hue had she touched her personal best of 59.44m, achieved only last month. Silver medallist Liu fenying managed only 59.34m in the second place. Neelam, silver medallist in Asians at Fukuoka, had a best of 55.09m as she kept having problems with her turn and fouled three of hersix throws.

India8217;s other entry Swaranjeet Kaur was also well below her personal best by almost five metres and with 51.46m was fourth in a field of seven. Swaranjeet was fourth even at the Asian meet.

Paramjeet Singh with two good runs in 46.68 seconds in the first round and then 46.37s in the semi-finals qualified for the final. Paramjeet8217;s time of 46.37s was third best of the day behind Asian champion Sugath Tillekeratne8217;s 45.88s and two-time Asian Games champion Ibrahim Ismail of Qatar clocked 45.95s.

In the women8217;s quarter mile 34-year-old PT Usha running in her fifth Asian Games and her first race after her injury last month, struggled to get through to the final in an event she dominated in the 1980s. Usha, fourth in her heat in 54.63s, went through to the final as one of the two fastest losers and she will find it difficult to get to the medals. Meanwhile, Rosa Kutty won the first semi-final in 54.06s to make the final. Damayanthi Dharsha of Sri Lanka looks a safe bet for the gold in this eventas she cruised through in 52.48s easing up in the last five metres. Svetlana Bodritskaya of Kazhakstan 53.47sm and the Chinese duo Zhang Hengyun 54.37s and Chen Yuxiang 54.13s also had easy races and should fight it out for the medals.

Rachita Mistry ran her second best in life in 11.46 seconds to be second behind Lankan Susantika Jayasinghe 11.30s in her heat and entered the final. Bahadur Prasad went through to the 1,500m final in 3:51.00 running third behind defending champion and Asian record holder, Mohammed Suleiman of Qatar 3:5.43s and Kiyoharu Sato of Japan 3:50.64s. The other heat was won by Kim Soon-Hyung of Korea in a casual 3:53.93s.