Athletics
India finishes third at Asian U20 Athletics C'ship, wins two gold on final day
Women's 4x400m relay team and Laxita Sandila won gold on the final day to ensure a third-place finish for India at Asian U20 Athletics C'ships.
The Indian women's 4x400m relay team and 1500m runner Laxita Vinod Sandila won a gold medal each to help the country finish at the third spot at the Asian U-20 Athletics Championships here Wednesday.
Sandila ran her personal best time of 4:24.23 seconds to clinch gold on the concluding day of competitions. She bettered her earlier personal best of 4:26.48s by more than two seconds to bag India's fifth gold of the championship.
Later in the day, the dependable quarter-miler Rezoana Mallick Heena anchored the longer relay (4x400m) team to gold, clocking 3:40.49s. Kazakhstan won silver with a time of 3:46.19 seconds, while Korea (3:47.46s) took the bronze.
The men's 4x400m relay team settled for a silver with a time of 3:08.78 seconds. Mehdi Hasan added a bronze in the men's 1500m race with a time of 3:56.01s while Shivaji Parashu Madappagoudra bagged a silver in the men's 5000m race by clocking 14:49.05s as India's tally swelled to 19 medals.
India finished third with 6 gold, 7 silver, and 6 bronze, behind Japan (14 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze) and China (11 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze).
On an opening day on Sunday, fast-rising Rezoana Mallick Heena and Bharatpreet Singh clinched a gold medal each in women's 400m and men's discus throw respectively.
Shot putter Siddharth Choudhary added another gold on Monday with a personal best throw of 19.52m while decathlete Sunil Kumar won a yellow metal on Tuesday. A 45-member Indian team, which had 19 women, competed in the June 4 to 7 event.
