Hima Das and Muhammed Anas won a silver each in women’s and men’s 400m as Indian athletes continued their strong show at the Asian Games on Sunday.
The silver medal each from Hima and Anas was on expected lines as the gold winners in their respective events were outright pre-race favourites.
For Hima, it was her second national record in two days as she clocked 50.79 seconds to win the silver, behind Bahrain’s Salwa Naser who won the gold in a new Games record time 50.09 seconds.
Hima had qualified for the final with a national record time 51.00 seconds on Saturday, bettering the 14-year-old mark set by Manjeet Kaur (51.05) in Chennai in 2004.
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.
Another Indian in the women’s 400m final, Nirmala Sheoran finished fourth in 52.96. It was India’s first medal in women’s 400m since Manjeet Kaur won a silver at the 2006 Doha edition.
In men’s 400m final, Anas clocked 45.69 seconds to clinch the silver. The gold was won by Hassan Abdalelah of Qatar in 44.89 seconds.
Meanwhile, Dutee Chand qualified for the women’s 100m final by clocking 11.43 in semifinal 1. She finished third behind Olga Safronova (11.42) and Bahrain’s Hajar Alkhaldi (11.42).
Hajar pipped Dutee for the second spot in a photo-finish after finishing the dash with same timing.
The timing was slower than her semifinal (11.38) and her own national record (11.29). Asian Championship silver medallist Anu Raghavan qualified for the final of the women’s 400m hurdles final.
The 25-year-old from Kerala was third fastest in Heat 2 and also overall third with a timing of 56.77.
Joining her in the final was compatriot Juana Murmu (59.20) as the last best loser. Anu had won a silver at the Asian Championship held in Bhubaneswar.
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