Muhammad Anas bagged an Asian Games silver in the men’s 400m at Jakarta and Palembang, finishing with a time of 45.69 seconds.
The national record holder had set a time of 45.30 seconds in the semi-final, topping the timing charts overall but was unable to better his performance in the final. Qatar’s Abdalelah Hassan finished top with a time of 44.89 seconds, never ceding the lead to Anas and pulling away in the latter half of the race.
For Anas, it was a fast start with a reaction time of 0.151 seconds that saw him neck and neck with the Qatari after 100 metres but Hassan accelerated thereafter, pulling well clear of the field.
Khamis Ali of Bahrain also ran a strong race and almost pipped Anas to the silver, finishing just 0.01 seconds in arrears behind the 23-year-old from Kerala.
Arokia Rajiv, who won the Asian Games bronze at Incheon four years ago, could only finish fourth on this occasion, with a time of 45.84 seconds. Anas, who had just missed out on a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, will be happy with his first Asian Games medal.
Both Anas and Rajiv will now be looking forward to the men’s 4X400 metre relay and the mixed 4X400 relay. It was also the first time since 1982 that India won a medal in the men’s and women’s 400 metres since 1982.
