Jakarta, Indian sprinters Muhammed Anas, Hima Das and Dutee Chand claimed silver medals in their respective events at the 18th Asian Games here on Sunday.
Anas and Hima claimed the silver medals in the men’s and women’s 400 metres races respectively.
Reigning Asian champion Anas completed the race in 45.69 seconds to be second, while Hima clocked a national record mark of 50.79 seconds to take the second place in the women’s race.
The other two Indian competitors in the races, Rajiv Arokia and Nirmala finished fourth. While Rajiv timed 45.84 seconds to complete the men’s 400m race, Nirmala finished the race in 52.96 seconds.
The men’s title went to Qatar’s Abdalelah Hassan, who completed the race in 44.89 seconds as he fended off Anas, who has a personal best of 45.31 seconds. Anas’ personal best mark had given him a fourth-place finish in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Ali Khamis of Bahrain picked the bronze medal with a timing of 45.70 as he finished ahead of 2014 edition bronze medallist Rajiv.
In the women’s race, Bahrain’s Salwa Naser produced a Games record timing of 50.09 seconds to finish ahead of 18-year-old Hima, who had renewed the Indian record of 51.00 seconds on Saturday in the semi-finals.
Assam girl Hima, the Under-20 world champion, was a sureshot medal contender but in the final, Naser, who had won a silver medal at the IAAF World Championships with a national record of 50.06 seconds, proved to be superior to the Indian.
The bronze medal went to Kazakhstan Elina Milkhina, who clocked 52.63 seconds to finish ahead of Nirmala.
Later in the day, Dutee clinched the silver medal in the women’s 100m final.
Dutee clocked 11.32 seconds to earn the silver. The gold medal went to Edidiong Odiong of Bahrain, who clocked 11.30s while China’s Yongli Wei took the bronze, clocking 11.33s.
In the men’s 10,000m category, India’s Govindan Lakshmanan missed out on a medal as he was disqualified following an official review.
The Indian Army runner had originally finished third, which would have earned the first Asian Games medal for India in that event after a gap of two decades.
But the Indian was disqualified because his foot touched the inside of the track.
Govindan had registered a time of 29 minutes and 44.91 seconds. Hassan Chani of Bahrain won gold with a time of 28:35.54. His compatriot Abraham Cheroben took silver with 29:00.29 while China’s Zhao Changhong (30:07.49) got the bronze.
Later, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) lodged an official protest against the decision.
“AFI files a Protest regarding DQ of G Lakshmanan (10000m) at #AsianGames2018,” the AFI posted on Twitter.
Earlier during the morning session, India’s Anu Raghavan and Jauna Murmu qualified for the women’s 400m hurdles final.
Anu took a time of 56.77 seconds to finish at the third place in Heat 2, while Jauna clocked 59.20 seconds to take the fourth spot in Heat 1.
In the final list, Anu and Jauna were placed third and eighth respectively.
The final will be held on Monday.
