Asian Games: Seems strikes gold, bronze for Jaisha, Naveen

Discus thrower Seema Punia gave the first gold medal from the track and field event at the Incheon Games while middle-distance runners O.P.Jaisha and Naveen Kumar added two more bronze in what was an impressive day for India at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium here Monday.

With the three medals, India's tally from the track and field events now stand at eight.

Seema, a silver medallist in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, hurled the metal disc to 61.03 metres in her fourth attempt to win the gold medal while her team mate Krishna Poonia, bronze medallist in 2006 and 2010 Asian Games, finished fourth with a below par 55.57m. Chinese Xiaoxin Lu (59.35m) and Jian Tan (59.03m) picked up the silver and bronze, respectively.

An emotional Seema said the silver in Glasgow inspired her to win the gold medal here.

"I am very happy to get the gold which I expected to win today. I have trained for this gold over the last three years. I had waited for this after missing the last two Asian Games," she said.

"I usually don't perform well in my first throw. But I followed my coach's instructions today to hurl the disc past the 55m mark with my first attempt," she said.

Meanwhile, Naveen won the bronze medal in the men's 3000m steeplechase with a personal best timing of 8:40.39 secs. The gold went to Qatar's Abubaker Ali Kamal with a timing of 8:28.72 secs while Bahrain's Tareq Mubarak Salem Taher took the silver clocking 8:39.62 secs.

Jaisha won the bronze medal in the women's 1,500 metres. The Indian finished third in four minutes 13.46 seconds. Bahrain claimed the gold and silver medals, with Maryam Yusuf Isa Jamal finishing first in 4 min 09.90 secs followed by Belete Gebregeiorges (4 min 11.03 secs).

In women's long jump final, M. Prajusha (6.23m) and Mayookha Johny (6.12m) finished eighth and ninth respectively while Nikhil Chittarasu (2.15m) finished a distant 16th in the men's long jump.