Kazakhstan tops the medal tally at Asian Indoor Games – Final Day

The central Asian republic of Kazakhstan took top spot overall in the athletics competitions of inaugural Asian Indoor Games which concluded at Pattaya, Thailand, on Tuesday (15 Nov). Kazakh athletes amazed with 8 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze medals over the course of the three days. With six gold and a bronze medal India finished a creditable second.

Double gold medallists

Indian athletes grabbed three gold medals on the final day through shot putter Navpreet Singh, their women’s 4x400m relay squad, and O.P. Jaisha in the 1500m.

Jaisha, who on the first day won the 3000m, went on to finish first in the ‘metric mile’ with a noteworthy performance of 4:15.75, which places her third in the Asian all-time indoor list. Navpreet Singh, the Shot Put silver medallist in this year’s Asian championships at Incheon, won his first indoor title of any sort with a 18.80m heave, while in the women's relay, the Indian quartet of Iyleen Samantha, Shanthi Soundararajan, Mandeep Kaur and Pinki Parmanik, ran a well judged race to win in 3:46.48.

Roman Valiyev, who missed a medal at Incheon, made it a double indoors by adding the Triple Jump gold to his Long Jump victory from the first day. The 22-year-old Kazakh registered another personal best with a jump of 16.51m to take his second gold.

Valiyev’s teammate Pavel Dubitskiy, who last year won the Heptathlon at the inaugural Asian Indoor Championships in Tehran, Iran, once again proved he was the best with a 5716 points score.

Qatar’s duo of Kamal Ali Thamer and Ali Abubaker Kamal took a 1-2 finish in the men’s 1500m. Thamer clocked 3:50.28, while Kamal was three-hundredths of a second slower. Thailand’s Boony Kaveerattanakajon came third for the bronze medal.

Chinese women dominate

The People's Republic of China have dominated the women’s events at these games, clinching 4 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.  On the final day they took two titles through long jumper Guan Yingnan and shot putter Li Ling.

Yingnan, this year’s National Games champion at Nanjing also holds the Asian junior record indoors, and was a clear favourite at Pattaya in the absence of India’s Anju George and Philipino Marestella Torres. She took gold by jumping 6.54m.

Li Ling, a silver medallist at Nanjing, tossed the shot out to 18.20m for the gold. Singaporean Gui Rong Zhang (17.99) and Thai Juthaporn Krasaeyan (15.52) were second and third respectively.             

On the final day, hosts Thailand had won two titles via their men’s relay squad, and in the women’s High Jump thanks to Noeng-Ruthai Chaipech.

The next edition of the Asian Indoor Games will be held at Macau in 2007.

Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF