Day 2: India grab 4 gold, consolidate top position

Bhubaneswar : India grabbed four gold medals on a rain-soaked second day of the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships, consolidating their top position in the medal table.  Haryana girl Nirmala Sheoran began the gold spree for the hosts by winning the women’s 400m and soon Muhammad Anas did an encore in the men’s 400m event. Rajiv Arokia and Jisna Mathew added a silver and a bronze in the men’s and women’s 400m, respectively.  More domination was in store for the hosts as PU Chitra and Ajay Kumar Saroj bagged a yellow metal each in the men’s and women’s 1500m race.
Dutee settles for bronze
Dutee Chand settled for a bronze in the 100m race before Tejinder Pal Singh Toor added a silver in the men’s shot put with an effort of 19.77m as India bagged four gold, two silver and two bronze on a very productive day. India have now swelled their tally to 15 medals with six gold, three silver and six bronze to sit atop the medal tally. China are second with 4 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze at the end of the second day. They won two gold, one silver and two bronze today.
The 21-year-old Sheoran clocked 52.01s while young Jisna Mathew (53.32s) finish third. Vietnam’s Quach Thi was second in 52.78s. MR Poovamma was fourth in 53.36s. Five minutes later, Indian men’s quatermilers Muhammad Anas and Rajiv Arokia finished first and second, clocking 45.77 and 46.14s, respectively. The 22-year-old Kerala girl Chitra clocked 4 min 17.92s to finish way ahead of second-placed Geng Min of China (4:19.15s) and Ayako Jinnouchi (4:19.90s) of Japan.  Chitra’s male counterpart, 20-year-old Saroj completed the four-gold haul in a span of 30 minutes by finishing the race in 3 min 45.85s.