Bobby Aloysius, Gurmeet Kaur win silver

High jumper Bobby Aloysius won India's first medal in athletics at the Afro-Asian Games on Tuesday before Gurmeet Kaur picked another silver in the women's javelin throw and Madhuri Singh won a bronze in the 1500 metres.

Both Bobby and Kazakhstan's Marina Aitova cleared 1.88 metres, but the Indian lost the gold as she cleared the height only on her third attempt whereas the Kazakh cleared went over the bar in her first try.

South Africa's Marisca Gerfenbach (1.75 metres) settled for the bronze medal.

Bobby expressed happiness about her performance, though it was below her best of 1.90 metres.

"I could not do even this in the Manila Asian Championships last month. I am happy with my show. Every aspect of my training in England in the new method is falling in place.

"The Olympic quota is 1.92 metres but I have to work harder for it, which I am sure will be within my reach since I have more than nine months to do it before the Athens Games," she said.

Sahana Kumari of India finished fifth with a clearance of 1.70 metres.

In the Javelin throw, Gurmeet's first throw of 53.37 metres was the second best, behind gold medal winner Sunette Vijoen of South africa (55.45m), amongst eight throwers. China's Xiaoyan Ha (51.96m) won the bronze medal. 

In the women's 1500 metres, the Indian performance was pathetic. Busan Asian Games gold medallist, Sunita Rani showed signs of winning as she led the first two rounds but started dragging her left leg midway into the third lap.

The Ethiopians showed their class as Hirpasa B Geletu and Dulecha Kutre won the gold and silver medals. They did not exert much and allowed the other four runners to have their go until the last 1200 metres.

In the last 300 metres, Hirpasa accelerated with her long strides and never looked back. India had the consolation of a bronze medal through Madhuri, who took about five minutes more than Hirpasa (4 min 17.36 secs).

Later, Sunita Rani disclosed that she ran despite an injury on her left leg, sustained during the National Open meet in Bangalore.

"I participated for the sake of the country and I will get back to the track fully fit soon. The training schedule for the Athens Olympics has not been decided yet, but by the time the Games come, I will reach my usual peak form," she said.

The other Indian athletes who returned empty handed were Manoj Lal (4th) and P Ramachandran (6th) in men's 400m; Varaprasad Reddy (4th) and Kaanwar Rakesh Rockey (8th) in men's 400m hurdles and Jitendewr Kumar (5th) in men's pole vault.

The women who disappointed were Hardeep Kaur (4th) and Ritu Rani (6th) in hammer throw, Jincy Philips (5th) in 400m and Sahana Kumari (5th) in high jump.

In the men's finals, Kazaksthan won two gold medals while Ethiopia and Kenya collected a medal each. And in the women's events, Asian powerhouses China and South Korea took two gold medals.

The highlight of the day's event was the stupendous performance, though below their personal best, by the Ethiopian and Kenyan 5000 metre runners.

These African athletes' extraordinary performance in setting the pace and accelerating in rhythmic style pushed the other two runners, including India's Aman Saini to the back ground.

Saini was almost lapped by Mekonnen Hailu Mekonne and Gemet Markos Genet of Ethiopia, who won the gold and silver medals respectively. 

In a one on one between these two athletes, Mekonnen breasted the tape in 13 min 49.08 seconds. Gemet finished 0.53 secs later to taker the silver.

With four of the eight events completed in the heptathlon, India's J J Shoba put herself in contention for a medal going into the lead with a tally of 3420 points, followed by South Africa's Justine Robbeson (3342 pts) and G G Pramila (3264 pts) for the second and third positions.

Results:

MEN: 400m: 1.Sambou Ezra (Kenya) 45.04 secs; 2.Nagm el din ali (Sudan) 45.44 secs and 3.Sugathra Thilakaratne (Sri Lanka) 45.99 secs.

400m hurdles: 1.Y.Evgeniy Meleshenko (Kazak) 49.66 secs; 2.Ibou Faye (Senegal) 50.08 secs; and 3.Osita Okagu (Nigeria) 50.87 secs.

5000m: 1.Mekonnen Hailu Mekonnen (Ethiopia) 13 min 49.08 secs; 2.Gemet Markos Genet (Ethiopia) 13 min 49.61 secs and 3.Keter Denis (Kenya) 13 min 50.41 secs.

Pole Vault: 1.Grigoriy Yegorov (Kazak) 5.25 metres; 2.Sene karim (Senegal) 5.05 metres and 3.Mefti Rafik (Algeria) 4.95 metres.

WOMEN:
400m: 1.Estie Wittsock (South africa) 52.09 secs; 2.Jacob Doris (Nigeria) 53.08 secs and 3.Winatho Wasana (Thailand) 53.88 secs.

1500m: Hirpasa Birhane Geletu (Ethiopia) 4 min 17.36 secs; 2.Dulecha Kutre Ware (Ethiopia) 4 min 18.14 secs and 3.Madhuri A.Singh (India) 4 min 22.32 secs.

High Jump: 1.Marina Aitova (Kazak) 1.88 metres; 2.Bobby Aloysius (Ind) 1.88; and 3.Marisca Gerfenbach (South Africa) 1.75.

Triple Jump: 1.Quian Huang (China) 13.50 metres; 2.Tatyana Bocharova (Kazak) 13.34 metres; 3.Alima Salamata (Nigeria) 13.00 metres.

Javelin: 1.Vijoen Sunette (South Africa) 55.49 metres; 2.Gurmeet Kaur (Ind) 53.37 metres and 3.Ha Xiaoyan (China) 51.96 metres.