Hosts India bagged three gold, five silver and five bronze medals with the women 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 promising athlete and legendary P.T. Usha’s protege Tintu Luka won 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.
The 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 bronze.
The second gold in the men’s section came from triple jumper Maheshwari who had covered a distance of 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 the 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 the 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. — PTI