India got their campaign at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar off to a strong start as they picked up two gold, a silver and two bronze medals on the opening day of the competition. While Manpreet Kaur's gold was along expected lines, G Lakshmanan's win in the men's 5000m was the surprise result of the day.
Manpreet Kaur - Gold - Women's shot put
Manpreet Kaur opened India's medal count a gold medal in the women's shot put. It was the first medal of any kind for Kaur at the Asian championships. The 27-year-old threw the iron ball a distance of 18.28m to beat out defending champion Guo TIngqian. The 22-yer-old Chinese thrower came up with a best effort of 17.91m to take silver. Kaur's effort, off her third attempt, was only her second legal throw of the competition. Her other throw was a mediocre 17.52m. Kaur has a personal best of 18.86m that she registered at the Asian Grand Prix in Jinhua, China in April this year.
G Lakshmanan - Gold - Men's 5000m
G Lakshmanan won his first ever gold medal from the Asian Championships when he clinched the men's 5000m race. He had won a bronze medal in this race in the 2015 edition of the continental championships in Wuhan. The contest in Bhubaneshwar was a tactical affair with Lakshmanan breaking free from the pack in the final lap of the race to win with a relatively slow time of 14:54:48 seconds.
To put this into perspective, his bronze medal from two years back had come in a time of 13:36:62 seconds. Regardless of the time, Lakshmanan has still qualified for the London World Championships on the basis of his gold medal win in Bhubaneshwar. The 27-year-old from Puddukottai, in Tamil Nadu has the opportunity to swell his medal haul for he is yet to compete in the 10000m race, an event in which he had won a silver medal at Wuhan.
V Neena - Silver - Women's long jump
Nayana James - Bronze - Women's long jump
It was the first medal for either athlete at the Asian Championships. Neena, 26, had in fact been tied with Vietnam's Bhu Thi Thu with a best effort of 6.55m. However, the gold medal went to the Vietnamese athlete who had registered a second best jump of 6.44m to Neena's 6.32m. Nayana James, 22, who had come into the competition with a season's best of 6.55m at the Federation Cup last month, managed 6.42m. With the World Athletics Championship standard set at 6.75m, neither athlete managed to qualify for the London event.
Vikas Gowda - Bronze - Men's discus throw
Vikas Gowda missed out on a chance to win a third consecutive gold medal in the men's discus throw competition as his best effort of 60.81m was only enough to secure him a bronze behind Iran's Ehsan Hadadi (64.54m) and Malaysia's Muhammad Irfan (60.96m). Gowda, who turned 34 on Thursday, was declared fit for participation after the national federation cleared his name at the last minute after a lot of deliberation. He fell short of his season's best of 62.35m in Chula Vista, in May this year.
Annu Rani - Bronze - Women's javelin throw
Anu Rani fell far short of her personal best of 61.86m that she had recorded only a month back at the Federation Cup, to settle for a bronze in Bhubaneshwar. Rani threw the spear 57.32m to finish behind Sri Lanka's Nadisha Dilhani Lekamge (58.11m) and China's Li Lingwei (63.06m). Rani, who had said she was expecting to cross the 64m mark, though will have a chance to make amends. Owing to her performance in Patiala at the Federation Cup, she has already qualified for the World Championships in August.