By IANS,
Bangkok : Indian athletes dominated the first leg of Asian Grand Prix by winning seven gold medals here Monday.
Indian women’s relay team won 4X400 metres gold with 3:32.55 seconds beating China and host Thailand. The Indian girls need to run must faster in the second leg of the Grand Prix at Korat in Thailand Friday, to secure top 16 position in the world which will also secure their participation in the Beijing Olympics. In the past, Indian team had reached finals of women 4x400m relay in the Los Angles 1984 and Athens Olympics 2004.
Indian men’s 4x400m relay team consisting of Bibin Mathew, Bhupendra Singh, S.K. Mortaja and K.M. Binu won the gold with 3:07.26 secs. Sri Lanka won silver in 3:10.91 secs and Thailand bronze with 3:13.54 secs.
Earlier K. M. Binu, semi finalist of Athens Olympic 2004 came third in the men’s 400m with a timing of 47.36 secs.
Indian men also swept the honours in the middle distance events as well.
Sandeep Karan Singh won the men’s 1500m with a timing of 3:51.32 secs while youngster Naresh Yadav finished second in 3:51.61 secs. Kashinath Aswale, recovering from back injury came up with brilliant performance of 8:09.92 secs to win the 3000m race while team mate Ajay Kumar Patel finished second with 8:09.97 secs.
In the men’s triple jump, defending champion Renjith Maheshwary finished second with a jump of 16.53m.
India’s ace women jumper Anju George won the long jump title with modest 6.41m.
India’s Satyender Singh continued his fine form with a throw of 18.42m in the men’s shot put while his compatriot Om Prakash took third place in 17.77m.
In the women’s 400m, Mandeep Kaur won the gold with a timing of 51.94 secs.
Harwant Kaur who has already attained A qualification for Olympics finished second with a throw of 60.78m while Seema Antil and Krishna Poonia finished fourth and fifth respectively.