Vikas Gowda, Lalita win golds at Asian Championships

India's discus thrower Vikas Gowda and woman steeplechaser Lalita Babar won gold medals, while India's G. Lakshmanan won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 metres race at the Asian Athletics Championships here on Saturday.

Commonwealth Games 2014 champion Gowda, 31, achieved a distance of 62.03 meters to bag the second consecutive gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships.

Lalita meanwhile topped the women's 3,000 metres steeplechase in 9:34.13 minutes, a competition record. China's Li Zhenzhu and Zhang Xinyan took second and third with 9:41.43 minutes and 9:46.82 minutes respectively, both surpassing the old competition record of 9:52.42 minutes.

Lakshmanan made it a more special day for India as he completed the 10,000 metres race in 29:42.81 minutes, while the title went to Bahrain's Elhassan Elabbassi, who won in 28:50.71 minutes. Uzbekistan's Andrey Petrov came third with 30:20.68 minutes.

Meanwhile China's reigning Asian Games champion Li Ling renewed the Asian record of women's pole vault. Li rewrote the old 4.65-metre Asian record, which was created by her at the 2013 National Games, to 4.66 metres. Li's teammate Xu Huiqin took second in 4.30 metres, while Japanese Tomomi Abiko was third in 4.20 metres, reports Xinhua.

Bahrain's Oluwakemi Adekoya, winner of the women's 400m and 400m hurdles at the Asian Games last year, dominated the hurdles event with a 54.31-second personal best, also the national record and competition record. Japan's Manami Kira took second in 57.14 seconds, while China's Xiao Xia was third in 57.69 seconds.

Bahrain's John Koech won the men's 3,000 metres steeplechase in 8:27.03 minutes, trailed by Qatar's Hashim Mohamed who timed 8:36.02 minutes and Evans Chematot, also from Bahrain, who finished in 8:42.76 minutes.

The men's 400 metres hurdles was dominated by Japan's Yuta Konishi, who claimed an early lead and timed 49.58 seconds to win the event. Chen Chieh of Chinese Taipei trailed in 49.68 seconds, while Japan's Kazuaki Yoshida came third in 49.95 seconds.

In the men's 200 metres semi-final, Qatar's sprinter Femi Ogunode, who broke the men's 100 metres Asian record on Thursday, led with a competition record of 20.28 seconds.