Shot putter Manpreet Kaur and long distance runner G Lakshmanan grabbed gold medals on a remarkable opening day for India at the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships as the hosts won seven medals to sit atop the medal tally.
V Neena and Nayan James bagged a silver and bronze in women's long jump while Vikas Gowda, Sanjivini Yadav, Annu Rani added a bronze each in the men's discus throw, women's 5000m race and javelin throw respectively.
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Heavyweights China ended the day in second position with one gold and two silver medals. Birthday girl Manpreet opened India's gold medal account with a career second best throw of 18.28m. She upstaged defending champion Chinese Guo Tianqian to give herself a perfect birthday gift at the packed Kalinga Stadium.
Tianqian took the silver with a best throw of 17.91m while Aya Ota of Japan got the bronze with 15.45m.
She was expected to win the gold today as she was best this season -- 18.86m at Asian Grand Prix in Jianhua (China)) in April -- among the eight competitors in the absence of world number four Gong Lijiao of China (19.56m).
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The Asian Championships winner gets automatic berth for the World Championships to be held in London next month but Manpreet, who hails from a village near Patiala in Punjab, has already qualified for the global flagship event with her own national record-improving effort of 18.86 in China.
Manpreet, who returned to the circuit last year after taking some time off due to the birth of a child, said she was happy to have crossed the 18m mark.
"This is my second-best throw of my career and I am very happy for this performance. Before the event, I told myself that I should go beyond the 18m mark and anything extra beyond that would be satisfied," she said after having a lap of honour of the Kalinga Stadium.
AFP