It was double delight for India on the second day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar as Gomathi Marimuthu and Tejinderpal Singh Toor won golds in their respective disciplines. While Gomathi won India’s first gold of the competition by finishing top in women’s 800m, Tejinderpal clinched gold in men’s shot put.
A silver and two bronze medals also came India’s way on Monday, which took the country’s overall medal tally to 10 at the end of the second day.
Gomathi ran a calculated race, as she gradually made her way from the back of the pack to move into the lead and ultimately finish on the podium. This was the first major gold for the 30-year-old athlete from Tamil Nadu.
"I did not realise till I crossed the finish line that I have won a gold medal. The last 150m was very tight race," Gomathi said later.
Gomathi clocked a personal best of 2:02:70 (2 minutes, 2.70 seconds), which included a tremendous run on the final lap after being relegated to sixth place just after the bell. Her previous best (2:03.21) had come on way to gold in the Federation Cup recently in Patiala.
With 200m left on the back straight, she went past a couple of Sri Lankan runners and moved into third place. Running on the outside lane, Gomathi then went past Kazakhstan’s Margarita Mukasheva and the leader Wang Chunyu to clinch the race.
It was third time lucky for Gomathi, who had finished seventh in the Asian Championships in 2013 and fourth in 2015.
National record holder and pre-tournament favourite Toor's first round throw of 20.22m fetched him a gold in the men's shot put final at the Khalifa Stadium.
Shivpal Singh won a silver in men’s javelin with a personal best throw of 86.23m. With this effort, the 23-year-old Shivpal also booked himself a place in the World Championships which will be held at the same venue in September-October. The qualifying mark for the event was 83m.
India added 2 bronze medals in the form of Jabir Madari Palliyalil and Saritaben Gayakwad, who finished third in the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles respectively.
Medal prospect Dutee Chand however disappointed finishing fifth in the women’s 100m final. She had broken the national record in the semi-final. Jinson Johnson and Rajiv Arokia, who were expected to do well in the men's 800m and 400m events respectively, also missed out on medals.