Indians strike gold and more

The Kazakh timed 53.53 seconds for gold. Pinki, who also won the gold in 800m in 2:07.8 secs, was home in 53.86. Manjit, the national record holder, finished a poor third at 54.86. Her best is 51.05 seconds set last year.

According to information received here, the 19-member Indian contingent claimed 12 medals, including three gold and five silver medals in the first of the three series of the Asian circuit.

Despite not-so-strong challenge, majority of the elite athletes found the going tough in their respective events. Barring Pinki, who surprised the field, the rest were not very impressive.

Sprinter Anil Kumar and national record holder also had a poor day and finished fourth in 10.53 seconds. So did men8217;s long jump record holder Amritpal. He was fourth at 7.34 metres.

But Maha Singh made most of the lack-luster affair to claim gold with a jump of 7.55 metres. Last season, he had been regularly crossing the 7.80m mark.

Anil Kumar was the third Indian to win gold with a throw of 72.87m in javelin. However, shot putter Navpreet8217;s silver winning efforts came at 18.61m.

Discus thrower Krishna Poonia 54.32m, Sunil Kumar 8:26.75 in 3,00m and Francis Sagayaraj 1:53.75 in 800m also grabbed silver medals.

Pritam Bhind 3000m Joseph Abraham 400m and high juper Hari Shankar Roy claimed bronze.