NEW DELHI: Has India been denied a legitimate medal upgrade at the ongoing Asian Athletics Championships in Doha ? It was discovered that the men’s 10,000m silver medal winner Hassan Chani of Bahrain had infringed on a technical rule by not wearing a bib on his back.Indian runner Murli Kumar Gavit won the bronze, and the Indian contingent filed a verbal protest against Chani but the technical delegate dismissed it.According to International Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) competition rules, every athlete has to be provided with two bibs that should be 'worn visibly' on the chest and back. The rules further say that these bibs "must be worn as issued and may not be cut, folded or obscured in any way". If it's not followed, the rules say, the athlete should be disqualified.Surprisingly, the technical delegate rejected India's protest, instead giving only a yellow card or warning to the Bahraini runner on the ground that it was a mistake by the officials who had failed to spot the missing bib. Had they followed the rule by spirit, as technical officials do in most events, Chani should have been disqualified, handing Gavit the silver. "This is an infringement of technical rules. As you can get disqualified for false start or lane change, similarly you can get disqualified for not wearing bibs. We had lodged an oral protest. They said it's the fault of technical officials at call room who did not check. They said that the athlete was not at fault and they issued a yellow card," Athletics Federation of India 's (AFI) Ravinder Chaudhury told TOI from Doha.When asked why the AFI did not give a written complaint, the AFI official said, "We did whatever we could as a federation. "Ironically, Indian runner G Lakshmanan had been disqualified after finishing third in 10,000m final in the Indonesia Asian Games last year because of a technical infringement.Lakshmanan had finished with country's first bronze in the event in 20 years but stepped inside the curb after accidently clipping the boot of Chani, who went on to win the gold then. Lakshmanan was disqualified and a protest by India was turned down.<doc-sep>DOHA: PU Chitra led the charge with a gold in women's 1500m race as India picked up four medals on the fourth and final day of competitions to end at fourth at the medal tally in the Asian Athletics Championships on Wednesday.Chitra defended the title she had won in the 2017 edition to give India its third gold medal while Ajay Kumar Saroj (men's 1500m) and the women's 4x400m relay team clinched a silver each at the Khalifa Stadium.Sprinter Dutee Chand added a bronze in women's 200m to take India's medal tally to 3 Gold, 7 silver and 7 bronze.But there was a late drama as India was initially declared to have won a silver in men's 4x400m relay with a time of 3:03.28, behind Japan (3:02.94) but the jury later disqualified the team for impeding an athlete after protest by China. The disqualification was done under rule 163.2.India filed an appeal against the jury's decision to disqualify its team from the 4x400m relay race but it was rejected.China, who initially finished third, was given the silver while Qatar was upgraded to bronze from fourth position.The jolt reduced India's total medal tally by one from 18 to 17 but did not, however, result to any changes in India's standing in the medal tally.India had won 29 medals (12 Gold, 5 silver, 12 bronze) in the last edition in Bhubaneswar in 2017, topping the medal tally for the first time.This time, Bahrain topped the medal tally with 11 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze, followed by China (10 gold, 13 silver, 7 bronze), Japan (5 gold, 4 silver, 9 bronze) and India.This was the second time since 1983 that China has been pushed to the second spot. India did that in 2017 while Bahrain did the same this time.India's tally of 17 medals can be considered creditable as the team was a depleted one without some of the medal contenders, including star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, due to injuries.The championships as usual did not see some of the best athletes in the world who preferred to focus on the World Championships to be held at the same venue in September-October.For India, the spotlight of the final day fell on Chitra as she beat two Bahraini runners to clinch the gold in the women's 1500m race. She overtook Bahraini runner Tigest Gashaw just a few metres before the finishing line to win the race in 4 minute 14.56 seconds.This was India's third gold of the championships after Gomathi Marimuthu (women's 800m) and Tejinder Pal Singh Toor (men's shot put) won a yellow metal each on the second day on Monday.Gashaw clocked 4:14.81 for the silver while another Bahraini Mutile Winfred Yavi took the bronze in 4:16.18. "Got a little nervous towards the end being next to Bahraini runner (Gashaw Tigest). She beat me to third place in Asian Games. I had to really push hard in the end," said the 23-year-old Chitra who had won a bronze in the Jakarta Asian Games.Chitra had won gold in the 2017 edition in Bhubaneswar in 4:17.92.While Chitra defended her title, her male counterpart Saroj (1500m) and the women's 4x400m relay team failed to do the same.Saroj, who had won gold in 2017, clocked a season best time of 3 minute 43.18 seconds to clinch a silver behind Bahrain's Abraham Kipchirchir Rotich who clocked 3:42.85.The women's 4x400m relay quartet of Prachi, Poovamma, Saritaben Gayakwad and VK Vismaya finished second with a time of 3:32.21, behind the Bahraini quartet who clocked 3:32.10.Dutee, who had finished a disappointing fifth in the 100m final on Tuesday after smashing national record twice, clocked 23.24 seconds to win the bronze in the women's 200m.After falling behind in the first 100m, she covered a lot of ground in the final 100m stretch and got past three competitors at the finish line.Salwa Naser of Bahrain expectedly took the gold in 22.74 while Olga Safronova of Kazakhstan was second in 22.87.The 23-year-old Dutee, who had won a 200m silver in the Jakarta Asian Games, still missed the World Championships qualifying mark of 23.02. She has a personal best of 23.00. "I am really very happy. I missed a medal in 100m & relay. I put too much effort in 100m, was not sure of medal in 200m. Just did my best & I am happy," Dutee said.In the women's discus throw, Navjeet Kaur (57.47m) and Kamalpreet Kaur (55.59m) came up with disappointing shows to finish fourth and fifth respectively.<doc-sep>India’s Swapna Barman celebrates with her national flag after competing in the women’s heptathlon at the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha. (Source: AP) India’s Swapna Barman celebrates with her national flag after competing in the women’s heptathlon at the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha. (Source: AP) Swapna Barman won the silver medal in Heptathlon event at the Asian Athletics Championships on Tuesday after scoring her season-best with 5993 points. India won three medals on Day 3 of the competition with India’s mixed relay team in 4X400m adding another silver and Sanjivani Jadhav winning bronze in Women’s 10,000m taking India’s medal tally to 13. The 22-year-old Swapna old opened the medal tally for India on Day 3. She finished with the silver medal behind Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Vornina who scored 6198 points and missed breaking legendary Ghada Shouaa’s meet record of 6259 points. Barman’s aggregate points was more than the 5942 she had logged while winning the gold in the last edition in 2017 but was less than the 6026 she had accumulated in the Asian Games in Jakarta last year. Barman, however, was not satisfied with the second place. She said after the finish, “Not very happy, I am not pleased with my result in Javelin Throw this morning. Preparation was not good, I am injury queen you know (laughs), had a problem in ankle. I really wanted to do better.” Barman, who also won gold at the Asian Championships in 2017, returned from the Asian Games in 2018 with a gold. Swapna Barman’s biodata now reads like this: GOLD: Asian Games 2018 (6026 points) GOLD: Asian Championships 2017 (5942 points) Silver: Asian Championships 2019 (5993 points) pic.twitter.com/PrqhneFkOs — India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) 23 April 2019 Swapna Barman (who won Silver medal in Heptathlon event at Asian Athletics Championships) on the victory podium #AAC2019 #AsianAthleticsChampionship2019 pic.twitter.com/kVEpzn0R74 — India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) 23 April 2019 In the 4x4000m mixed relay team which was introduced for the first time in this championship, Mohammed Anas, M R Poovamma, V K Vismaya and Arokia Rajiv clocked 3:16.47 to win the silver medal, behind Bahrain. #Silver, Silver, Silver another medal for India, this time in 4*400m Mixed Relay (Mohd Anas Yahiya, Poovamma MR, VK Vismaya, Arokiya Rajiv) clocked 3:16.47 to fetch the medal. In AG 2018, Indian team clocked 3:15.71s for Silver Medal @afiindia @PoovammaMR #AsianAthletics pic.twitter.com/8dlfXwXIgk — Nitin Arya (@nitinarya99) 23 April 2019 Sanjivani Jadhav clocked personal best of 32:44.96 to win bronze medal in women’s 10,000m. She finished behind Bahrain’s Shitaye Habtegebrel (31:15.62) and Japan’s Hitomi Niiya (31:22.63). India now have an overall of two gold medals, five silver medals and six bronze to its tally. Dutee Chand stormed into the final of women’s 200m after winning her Heat clocking 23.33s. Earlier in the championships, Dutee finished fifth in the 100m finals despite shattering the National Record twice in Heats and semifinals respectively. Ajay Kumar Saroj progressed to the final of Men’s 1500m after finishing second in Heat (2) clocking 3:49.20. India finished 4th in 4X100m Relay (Women), clocking 43.81s. Suseentra, Veeramani, Kunnath and Dutee ran the race. The last baton exchange between Kunnath and Dutee took a long time, otherwise medal looked likely. In a major blow to India, Jinson Johnson pulled out of the tournament, owing to an injury just hours before the 1500m finals. “His left calf muscle is troubling him at the moment. Doctors have advised him not to compete in such situation,” deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair said in a statement. Johnson could not complete his 800m final race on Monday. He holds the national records in both 800m and 1500m.<doc-sep>
PU Chitra wins gold for India in womenâ€™s 1500m at Asian Athletics Championships The victory also ensured PU Chitra's qualification for the IAAF World Championships to be held in September. news Athletics Kerala athlete PU Chitra bagged gold for India in the womenâ€™s 1500m race on Wednesday at the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha. PU Chitraâ€™s victory came in 4 minutes 14.56 seconds on the concluding day of the championships. The win also ensured Chitra's qualification for the IAAF World Championships in September. With the victory, she also defended her 1500m title. Chitra had won gold in the 2017 edition as well in Bhubaneswar, finishing the race in 4 minutes 17.92 seconds. "I had become a little nervous towards the end being next to the Bahraini runner (Gashaw Tigest). She had beat me to third place in the Asian Games. I had to really push hard in the end," Chitra told IANS after the race. This was Indiaâ€™s third gold in the championships. In the last Asian Athletics Championships held in 2017, PU Chitraâ€™s name had become embroiled in a controversy after she was not included in the list of athletes to represent India. It was after the direction of the Kerala High Court that her name was included in the 2017 list. She had also received overwhelming support from all sections of the public for her fight against the Athletics Federation of India, which did not give her a ticket initially. She answered her critics by later winning gold in the championships. Meanwhile, sprinter Dutee Chand won the first medal of the day for India as she managed a season best timing of 23.24 seconds to win bronze in the 200m race. "I am really very happy. I missed out on a medal in the 100m and the relay. I put too much effort in 100m and was not sure of a medal in 200m. I just did my best and I am happy," Dutee told IANS. Though Dutee was happy with her effort, her season-best timing of 23.24 seconds will not help her make it to the World Championships. Her timing was just 0.001 seconds quicker than the fourth placed runner and her position was confirmed after it was flashed on the giant screen at the Khalifa Stadium. In the men's 1500m race, Ajay Kumar Saroj won a silver clocking 3:43.18. In women's discus throw, Kamalpreet Kaur and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon finished fourth and fifth respectively. (With inputs from IANS)