India contingent bags 22 medals at Asian Games invitational tournament

Jakarta: Continuing to shine in International sports arena, Indian contingent clinched a rich haul of 22 medals, including 13 gold, at the Asian Games invitational tournament that concluded on Wednesday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Jinson Johnson clinched gold in the men's 800m run and was one of three medals won by Indian athletes on the final days competition at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium. India won gold in the men's and women's 4x400m events. India also won a silver medal through Sarita Singh in the women's hammer throw and a bronze through Kamalraj Kanaraj in the men's triple jump event. On the last day, India finished with 13 gold medals, five silver and four bronze.

Johnson, a former silver and bronze medallist at the Asian Championships, was by far the superior runner in the competition. He clocked 1:47:96 to finish way ahead of Raed Aljadni, who was over six seconds behind with a time of 1:54:17 seconds. Meanwhile, competing in the 400m men's event, Jithu



Baby, Kunhu Mohammad combined with Sumit Kumar and Jeevan Suresh to claim gold with a time of 3:07:06 seconds and finish 0.63 seconds ahead of the Chinese Taipei quartet.

On the other side, in the 400m relay, the women's quartet of Hima Das, Sonia Baishya, Saritaben Gayakwad and Nithya Shree Ananda was guaranteed another gold as it ran unopposed.

The Indians recorded a modest time of 3:37:76 seconds.

Sarita Singh, who is a national record holder in hammer throw, was never really in the contest against defending Asian Champion Luo Na of China, who recorded a personal best of 72.11m. Sarita had to be content with silver with a best throw of 61.75m. Kamalraj Kanagraj won bronze medal in the mens triple jump behind Chinas Zhu Yaming and Malaysias Ismail Hakimi, who cleared 16.79m and 16.24m respectively.The effort was disappointing from Kanagraj, who only last month had jumped 16.23m to claim silver at the Asian Indoor championships.