Asian Games 2018: Arpinder's gold ends 48-yr-long wait in men's triple jump

Before the 25-year-old Arpinder, the previous champion was Mohinder Singh Gill in 1970 with an effort of 16.11m.

Arpinder Singh on Wednesday ended India's 48-year wait for a gold medal in the men's triple jump event at the Asian Games as he returned with his best effort of 16.77 metres in the final.

Arpinder pipped Uzbekistan's Ruslan Kurbanov, who took the silver medal with a personal best jump of 16.62 metres. The bronze medal went to Chinese Cao Shuo, who jumped 16.56 metres.

Before the 25-year-old Arpinder, the previous champion was Mohinder Singh Gill in 1970 with an effort of 16.11m.

Another Indian in the fray, A V Rakesh Babu was sixth with a best attempt of 16.40 metres.

On Wednesday, Arpinder flopped in his first attempt. After the invalid jump, he came back strong with a jump of 16.58 metres in the second attempt which made him the leader after the first two attempts.

ALSO READ: Asian Games 2018 LIVE Updates, Day 12: More gold for India in athletics?

Babu, in his second attempt of 16.40, was second behind his compatriot, even as Ruslan till then had his best of 16.28.

Arpinder gained further ascendancy when he came out with a jump of 16.77m. Ruslan too made his best attempt of 16.62 metres. The Uzbek athlete, however, could not topple Arpinder as the former made attempts of 15.99, 16.43, 16.41 in his final three chances respectively.

Arpinder jumped 16.08 in his fourth attempt before fouling the last two attempts.

China's Cao delivered his best in his sixth and last attempt with a jump of 16.56 to push Japanese Kohei Yamashita to the fourth spot.

Yamashita had fouled his last three attempts. His best of 16.46 came in his third attempt.

Article Source BS

Asian Games 2018: I ran with closed eyes, says Dutee Chand after silver win

Dutee Chand was dropped from India's Commonwealth Games contingent in 2014 after being rendered ineligible to compete as a female athlete due to hyperandrogenism policy of IAAF.

Unable to stop smiling after crying for years, Dutee Chand was sprinting with her "eyes closed" until she had ushered in a new dawn, healing an old wound on the way.

Dropped from India's Commonwealth Games contingent in 2014 after being rendered ineligible to compete as a female athlete due to hyperandrogenism policy of the world athletics body (IAAF), the last four years of her life have not been easy for the 22-year-old Odisha athlete.

Allowed to race again after being cleared by the Court of Arbitration (CAS), Dutee on Sunday achieved the biggest success of her career.

"2014 was very a bad year for me. People said many things abut me. The same girl today came back and won a medal for the country, it is really big achievement for me," Dutee said after winning a silver medal in the women's 100m at the Asian Games.

The desperation to achieve something big, to make up for the opportunities lost, was palpable as she spoke about her effort.

"In the semifinals, the first 20 metres, I did not push much and coach pointed out that 'you have to make a better beginning. So in the final, I rushed the first 40 metres. I was running with eyes closed, whether medal comes or not, I wanted to better my timing.

"When I opened my eyes, the race was over. I did not know what has happened. People said you have won a medal, but I did not believe, I did not pick flag until I saw the result on display screen."

Dutee could not stop smiling after the win.

ALSO READ: Asian Games 2018: Dutee Chand gets praise, cash award for her silver win

"It is my biggest medal, I am already 22 and I had never participated at Asian Games before because of hyperandrogenism. It was Olympic for me, I trained for six hours in a session for this."

Dutee had become only the third Indian to qualify for the women 100m event at the Rio Olympics. She had timed 11.69 but did not make it to the final.

The Athletic Federation of India and IAAF' faced flak for violating Dutee's privacy and human rights. She appealed to the CAS and in July 2015, it issued a decision to suspend the hyperandrogenism regulation for female track and field sports for two years.

It found that there was insufficient evidence to indicate that there is any link between enhanced androgen levels and improved athletic performance.

The court gave two more years to IAAF to present convincing evidence and if it is not provided within the deadline, the regulation will be automatically revoked.

Dutee's silver came in 11.32 seconds, the same timing with which she had won gold at the National Games. However, it was slower than her own national record (11.29).

Article Source BS

Asian Games 2018: India thrash Maldives 3-0 in badminton team event

The Indian men's team will next face hosts Indonesia on Monday in the quarterfinals.

Àsian Games 2018 : The Indian badminton team, led by Kidambi Srikanth, made a resounding start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games, thrashing minnows Maldives 3-0 in the opening match of the team competition here today.

World No 8. Srikanth brushed aside Maldives' Hussein Zayan Shaheed Zaki 21-4 21-5 in 18 minutes to give India a 1-0 lead.

World No. 11 H S Prannoy then took 21 minutes to outclass Mohamed Sarim 21-8 21-6 and make it 2-0 in India's favour.

B Sai Praneeth, who had clinched the 2017 Singapore Open, then ended the challenge of Mohamed Ajfan Rasheed in just 22 minutes with a 21-7 21-8 demolition as India wrapped up the contest 3-0.

The Indian men's team will next face hosts Indonesia tomorrow in the quarterfinals.

Indonesia, who received a first-round bye, boasts of good players such as Jonathan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the singles, while their doubles line-up comprise World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and World No. 9 Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.

ALSO READ: Asian Games 2018 LIVE: India hopes to increase medal count on Day 2

The women's team, led by Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu, will play formidable Japan in the quarterfinals after receiving a bye in the opening round.

Article Source BS