Discus thrower Vikas Gowda opened India's gold account with a commanding performance at the 20th Asian Athletics Championships on Thursday. With this win, Gowda has qualified for next month’s World Championships in Moscow as each winner in the current Asian meet automatically qualifies for the global mega event. Notably, the wild celebration of the crowd listened to the National Anthem being played for the first time in the Championships.
Vikas Gowda's soaring personality can be very daunting at times but the Indian discus thrower has been a calm and composed figure. Precisely, the 30-year-old Indian was second behind Mohammad Samimi of Iran up to the third attempt. Subsequently, the Indian's fourth throw almost touched his personal best and won a gold medal for him. He had won silver medal each in the 2005 and 2011 editions.
The US-based Indian changed his shoes for the 4th attempt and covered 64.90m as none could challenge his imposing feat. Gowda, whose personal best is 66.28m, described that it is a good result. All his hard work seems to be paying off well. He added that it is not often that one comes close to their personal best in a major event and somehow it happened for him. He has almost touched 65m. He remarked that winning silver in front of a huge crowd in the Commonwealth Games was one of his most memorable moments. He added that today's gold is right on top of everything.
On the other side, Samimi, whose best was 61.93m, clinched silver while Mohammad Ahmed of Qatar who covered 60.28m won bronze.
M.R. Poovamma of India won a silver medal in the women's 400m while Ratiram Saini hauled bronze in the men's 10,000m run. Following a series of dope incidents in 2011, M.R. Poovamma got a chance to crash in to India's 400m squad. The Bangalore girl grabbed the opportunity with both her hands on Thursday. Certainly, the 23-year-old quarter-miler looked comfortable in the semi-finals on Wednesday but Chinese Yanmin Zhao ruled the proceedings on Thursday, registering her personal best with 52.49sec. To be frank, Poovamma, who was also watched by Ashwini Akkunji from the stands, finished 53.37sec, which was lower than her personal best of 52.75sec. Lebanese Gretta Taslakian (53.43sec) won the bronze, while Anu Mariam Jose of India finished a close fourth in 53.49sec.
Poovamma opined that the competition is not as tough at the Asian Grand Prix as it is here. She can proudly say that she has won an Asian Championship silver.
Ratiram bagged India's fifth medal of the event to add to Mayookha Johny and Om Prakash's bronze medals in the men's 10,000m on Wednesday. The men's 10,000m was ruled by Bahrain with a 1-2 finish. Alemu Bekele Gebre who finished in 28:47.26min won the gold while Bilisuma Shugi Gelas followed him to the finish line in 28:58.67min.
Ratiram, who clocked 29:35.42 min commented that he is happy but he thinks he could have done even better because towards the end, he allowed the gold and silver medalist to go ahead.
