AFI Media
26 August 2018
Jakarta (Indonesia). Hima Das added an Asian Games silver to her list of achievements this year after she finished the women’s 400 metres final in Jakarta in a time of 50.79 seconds.
It was another national record for the sprinter from Assam, who broke her previous record of 51 seconds that she had set in the semi-finals on Saturday. Das, who had won the junior World title in Tampere, Finland last month, was also competing at her maiden Asiad and also won her first major international medal at the senior level.
Nirmala Sheoran, who also participated in the final, came close to a medal by finishing fourth, in a time of 52.96 seconds.
Muhammed Anas, the national record holder in the 400 metres, also won silver in the men’s section as he clocked a time of 45.69 seconds. Anas, who won his Heat and his semi-final yesterday, ran a fast race to claim his first Asian Games medal.
Also in the final was Arokia Rajiv, bronze medal winner from Incheon in 2014. The Tamil Nadu sprinter finished 0.14 seconds behind the third-placed finisher in fourth, and will now look forward to the 4X400 metre relay.
Dutee Chand won India’s third athletics medal of the day when she bagged a silver in the women’s 100 metres. Chand ran a fast race to secure second place with a time of 11.32 seconds.
Earlier, she had qualified for the final by finishing third in semi-final one, with a time of 11.43 seconds. Chand is also India’s national record holder with a time of 11.24 seconds.
Govindan Lakshmanan had finished third in the men’s 10,000 metres but was later disqualified for having stepped outside the curb. Had he not been stripped of his bronze medal, it would have been India’s first in the event since Bangkok 1998.
Sreeshankar Murali finished in sixth place in the Men’s Long Jump competition. The 19-year old registered a best jump of 7.95 metres, and he was temporarily in third place before being taken over by other jumpers. It was also his first major international competition and he had earlier qualified for the final with a single jump of 7.83 metres, ensuring automatic qualification.
Santosh Kumar and Ayyasamy Dharun also ensured that they qualified for the finals of the 400 metres hurdles by finishing second in their respective semi-finals. Dharun, who is also the national record holder with a time of 49.45 seconds, was close to the record, clocking 49.55 seconds in the semi-finals.
Anu Raghavan in the morning had clocked 56.77 seconds in her 400 metres hurdles heats and qualified for the final, along with Jauna Murmu.
