Lakshmanan, Chitra win gold at Asian indoor event

Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) Sep 19 (IANS) India enjoyed a successful outing at the fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games here on Tuesday with Govindan Lakshmanan and P.U. Chitra winning gold in their respective events.

Lashmanan registered a time of eight minutes and 2.30 seconds to win the men s 3 000 metre title.

This is the third continental title for Lakshmanan this year. The 26-year-old had won gold in the 10 000m and 5 000m events at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar last July.

Chitra on the other hand took gold in the women s 1 500m event with a time of 4:27.32.

The 22-year-old from Kerala had won gold in the same event at the Asian Athletics Championships as well which earned her a spot in the World Championships.

India are now 10th in the medals tally at the 26-nation event with three gold two silver and two bronze medals.

Purnima Hembram had won gold in the women s pentathlon earlier during the event.

The silver medals have been bagged by Tajinder Toor in men s shot put and Sanjiv Jadhav in women s 3 000m.

Neena Varakil has taken bronze in women s long jump while Dharmendar finished third in the men s freestyle (70 kilogram) category of the belt wrestling competition.

--IANS
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