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 was nervous before my race, says Hima Das

Hima broke the national record twice in two-days in 400 m event.

She has beaten the national record twice in two days but India's newest sprint queen Hima Das said she was nervous ahead of Asian Games 400m final where she won a silver medal on Sunday.

Hima clocked 50.59 seconds to win the silver, behind pre-race favourite Bahrain's Salwa Naser who won the gold in a new Games record time of 50.09 seconds.

Hima, the reigning Under-20 world champion, had qualified for the final with a national record time of 51.00 seconds Saturday, bettering the 14-year-old mark set by Manjeet Kaur (51.05) in Chennai in 2004, and she on Sunday bettered it again.

"You surely get nervous. They don't see but only I know how nervous I get," said the 18-year-old sprinter from a village near Dhing in Assam.

Naser, the Nigerian-born 2017 World Championships silver medallist and winner of four legs of Diamond League Series this year, did not have to exert much in the end to clinch the goal.

"She (Naser) is a big athlete, I am happy to compete with her and I learnt in both the races. I grabbed a bit about race technique bit it's difficult to explain," said Hima who finished behind the Bahraini in the preliminary heats also.

"She is perfect athlete, I started my career just two years. I played football and it helped in athletics. But she is World Championship medallist, I learnt a lot from her."

ALSO READ: Sprint queen Hima Das: Is she the next big thing in brand endorsements?

Hima, however, said she does not think of reputation of a competitor when she steps on to the track.

"They are all good athletes. Good athletes will be there at good competitions but I don't think about them, I just think of bettering my own time," said Hima who has developed a habit of bettering her own mark in every subsequent race.

Asked if she knows how fast she can run in future or if she is close to her best, she said, "I am not sure how fast I can run."

Asked to comment on her rapid progress in such a short time, she shot back, "What kind of question is this? We always think of bettering our mark."

Hima said her coach Galina Bukharina did not prepare any special strategy for the final.

"It was tough competition, I knew, I am happy I bettered my mark. I was not confident but knew I will better by some margin," she said.

She said she did not plan her final race on Sunday.

"When you run, you don't think whether to run first 100m in such time and next 100m in such. There is no time to think. You don't think who will be ahead or behind, you just run.

Article Source BS

Asian Games 2018: J&K Guv hails Bhanu for bronze in Wushu, Kin proud

Family members of Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh celebrated their son's feat at their residence in Jammu.

Asian Games 2018 : Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik today extended warm felicitations to son of the soil Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh for winning bronze medal in Wushu at the ongoing Asian Games in Jakarta.

Bhanu Pratap Singh, a resident of Muthi in Jammu, registered an emphatic quarterfinal victory over his Philippines rival in the men's 60-kg category on Tuesday in Indonesia. But he lost the semi-final bout against Erfan Ahangarian of Iran yesterday after suffering an injury.

"We are really proud of his performance in the prestigious sporting event," Governor said in his felicitation message.

Governor also congratulated Kuldeep Handoo, another son of the soil and coach of the Indian Wushu contingent at the Asian Games.

Family members of Surya Bhanu Pratap Singh celebrated their son's feat at their residence in Jammu.

Bhanu's parents acknowledged the effort that went into their son's achievement and said "We're happy and proud. He had struggled a lot and it's his hard work that has paid off. His coach had also put in a lot of effort."

Wushu, a Chinese Kung-fu, is different from other combat sports as it is a mix of kick-boxing and wrestling.

Meanwhile, K Vijay Kumar, Advisor to Governor, has also felicitated Bhanu for the emphatic victory.

Advisor Kumar said Bhanu Pratap Singh would be adequately rewarded by the Governor's Administration on his return from Jakarta for his splendid performance in the Asian Games.

He said the administration is laying renewed focus on promoting sports in the state and in this regard a new Sports Policy is being formulated to institutionalize the sports culture in J&K.

He said various incentives are being proposed to encourage grooming of professional sportspersons in the state.

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