Hosts India bagged three gold,five silver and five bronze medals with the eves making a clean sweep in the discus throw event in the rain-interrupted first leg of the Asian Grand Prix at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here on Tuesday. The trio of Krishna Poonia,Seema Antil and Harwant Kaur clinched the top three spots in the discus throw even as young promising athlete and legendary PT Usha's protege Tintu Luka disappointed with a silver in the 800m. Sheikh Mortuza (400m) and Renjith Maheshwari (triple jump) earned India the other two gold medals. Sri Lanka's Shehan Abeypitiya,who had achieved his best in the Commonwealth Youth Games here two years ago,made the city his happy hunting track as he once again emerged the sprint king. Veteran Guzel Khubbieva,who had won the Doha Asian Games gold at the age of 30,won the women's sprint gold. Indian men,meanwhile,had a top two finish in the 400m when Mortuza and J Premanand clinched the gold and silver medals respectively. Mortuza won the gold with a timing of 47.64s while Premanand clocked 48.12s for the second spot. Nelson Stone (48.15s) of Papua New Guinea settled for the bronze. The second gold in the men's section came from triple jumper Maheshwari who jumped 16.84m in his fifth attempt to bag the top honour. India also pocketed a bronze in triple jump through Amarjit Singh,whose sixth and final attempt of 16.35m fetched him a podium finish. Wu Bo of China won the silver in the event with a jump of 16.53m. In men's 800m,India won a silver and a bronze through S Prakash Verma (1:47.90s) and Pankaj Dimri (1:48.20s). Sajad Moradi of Ireland won the gold with a timing of 1:47.70s. The only other medal for Indian men,a silver,came in the shot put with Om Prakash (19.58m) finishing second. China's Zhang Jun (19.71m) and Chinese Taipei's Chang Ming Huang (18.74m) won the gold and bronze respectively. Participating with an upset stomach,Lankan Abeypitiya still managed the sprint gold,pipping Oman's Babakat Al Harti in a photo finish as the duo clocked an identical 10.47s. Chinese sprinter Zhang Peimeng settled for the silver (10.49s). Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (10.60s) turned out to be best among the Indians with a fourth place finish. However,Tintu,who was the centre of attraction,disappointed in the women's 800m as she frittered away in the last 10 metres to settle for a silver with a timing 2:03.14s. Kazakhstan's Margarita Matsko won the gold with a timing of 2:02.85s while India's Sushma Devi won the bronze in the event with a timing of 2:03.69s.
