Jakarta: Tajinderpal Singh Toor set aside the disappointment of not being able to attend his cancer-ridden father, shattering the Asian Games record to open India’s gold medal account even as several national records tumbled on the opening day of the athletics competition.
He threw the iron ball to 20.75m, obliterating a six-year old national mark, set by Om Parkash Karhana (20.69). The previous Games record was 20.57, set by Sultan-Al Hebshi from Saudi Arabia at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
Toor, hailing from Punjab’s Moga, was front-runner for the gold in men’s shot put as he had entered the event as best athlete on display this season with a throw of 20.24m, achieved at the Federation Cup in Patiala.
The winning throw came in the fifth attempt though he was leading the field with his first throw of 19.96m. China’s Liu Yang won silver with season best effort of 19.52, ahead of Kazakshtan’s Ivan Ivanov (19.40m). Tajinder, who left behind an ailing father, who is battling cancer, said all the sacrifices have paid on Saturday.
“This medal is my biggest achievement because a lot of sacrifices have been made. For the last two years my father (Karam Singh) has been battling with cancer. My family though never let me get distracted. They allowed me to chase my dream. A lot of sacrifices have been made by my family and friends and all those have paid today,” he said.
“My family never pressurised to attend my father in hospital and it was always my friends who took care of all the hospital formalities in my absence. I have not gone home much in this period since I was training in Dharamsala,” the burly athlete, who trains with M. S. Dhillon, said. India’s rising star Hima Das qualified for the 400m final with a new national record as she timed exact 51.00s breaking a 14-year-old record set by Manjit Kaur (51.05s) in Chennai in 2004.
Hima ran with Bahrain’s Salwa Naser, who is favourite to win this event and won the Heat 1 with a new Games record. Also qualifying for the 400m final was Nirmala Sheoran, who stood fourth overall with a timing of 54.09s. It was best effort in Heat 3. National champion Dutee Chand, competing in her first big event after winning her gender case at the CAS, qualified for the semifinals of the women’s 100m with a timing of 11.38.
Running in lane 4, Dutee edged out Kazakhstan’s Olga Safronov (11.46) and Uzbekistan’s Nigina Sharipova (11.59) to win Heat 2. The effort was slightly slower than her national record (11.29) and the timing of 11:32 with which she had won gold at the National Games. With seven laps to go, Suriya was behind runners and Sanjivani was also struggling to catch up.
Asian champion Mohammed Anas also emerged as a strong gold medal contender in the men’s 400m by qualifying for the final with a timing of 45.30s. It was fastest time in the semifinal. Anas cut down on his timing from the Heats as he had clocked 45.63 in the morning session.
Arokia Rajiv also joined him in the final by clocking 46.08 in the semifinals. Chasing Anas are Mohammed Abbas (45.59), Abdalellah Hassan (45.83).
There was more good news for the Indian camp with Chetan Balasubramanya qualifying for the final of high jump by clearing 2.15m but none of the 13 qualifiers could qualify with the automatic qualification mark set at 2.20m.
Chetan began with 2.05m and easily cleared the jump. After clearing 2.10m, he cleared 2.15 in his second attempt. Making to the final of long jump was Sreeshankar with an effort of 7.83m, which was fourth best on Saturday behind Yuki Hashioka of Japan (8.03m), Jianan Wang (7.89) and Yaoguang Zhang (7.84) of China.
There was, though, disappointment for Sarita Romit Singh, who finished fifth in the hammer throw after clearing a distance of 62.03m, which was way behind than podium finishers N. Luo (71.42), Z. Wang (70.86) and H. Katasuyama (62.95).
In the women 10,000m, Suriya Loganathan (32:42.08) and Sanjivani Baburao (33:13.06) faded towards the end to finish sixth and ninth respectively.
