Indians clinched gold in all the four events contested on the third day of the Asian Games athletics test event even as Suriya Longanathan made a ‘solo run’ in women’s 5000m race on Tuesday.
Suriya ran a bizarre race as she was the only one to turn up in the women’s 5000m race at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium. Despite nobody there to push or pace her, the 28-year-old Indian recorded a career best time of 15 minutes and 39.18 seconds, shaving nearly seven seconds of her previous best of 15:46.92. Her effort will, however, not enter in record books.
In the men’s 5000m race, Govindan Lakshmanan, competing in his first event of the season, easily clinched gold by clocking 13 minutes and 56.30 seconds to finish ahead of Takanori Ichikawa of Japan who was nearly a half minute behind with a time of 14:19:10.
N V Sheena then claimed a gold medal in the women’s triple jump while Hima Das did the same in the women’s 200m race. The 18-year-old Das clocked a career-best 23.59 seconds to finish ahead of Ulfa Silpiana of Indonesia who was nearly a second behind with 24.86. Sheena cleared 13.33m in her second jump to clinch the triple jump gold. The 26-year-old Sheena had won a silver medal in triple jump at the Asian Indoor Championships in Tehran last month.
-Inputs from PTI
