Hima bags gold; books Asiad berth on Day 2 of NISSAC
Running at lane number 7 the 18-year-old led the final race from start to the end leaving behind Odisha s Dutee Chand (23.41) by a big gap at the finish line to clock a personal best time. Another Odisha sprinter Srabani Nanda took the bronze in 23.87.
Dutee also booked an Asian Games berth after clocking 23.46 in one of the heats on Tuesday. The qualifying time for Asiad in this event is 23.50.
In men s 200m Muhammed Anas of Kerala took the gold in 20.98 seconds but missed the qualifying mark of 20.87. V.K. Elakkiya Dasan of Tamil Nadu secured the silver in 21.31 while Parveen Kumar (21.43) got the bronze.
Anas who began running 200m recently had clocked 20.74 in Poland earlier this month.
Meanwhile in women s 800m race Komal Chodhary of Haryana took the gold clocking 2 minutes and 06.68 seconds well outside the qualifying mark of 2:03.00. Shipra Sarkar of Bengal took the silver in 2:07.02 while Maharashtra s Archana Adhav clocked 2:07.22 to take bronze.
Eight athletes have so far breached the Asian Games qualifying mark set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). India has been allotted 102 (52 men and 50 women) spots by the organisers of the Asian Games to be hosted at Jakarta in August.
--IANS tri/vd