Guangzhou, November 25
Taking Indian athletics to a new high, Joseph Abraham and Ashwini Chidananda today grabbed gold medals in the men's and women's 400m hurdles, an unprecedented feat for any country at the Asian Games.

Joseph and Ashwini raced to glory on an action-packed evening to give India a golden double in a single athletics for the first since 1978 Bangkok Asian Games when the country had won both 800m men's and women's gold medals.

Striding smoothly over the low hurdles, long-legged Ashwini stepped on the gas on the final straight to clinch the gold with a personal best of 56.15secs, clipping 0.28secs off her own previous high of 56.43 which she clocked in the qualifying heats.

Ashwini's victory is significant as she had started concentrating on hurdles just recently. Just a few minutes after Aswhini's triumph, the 29-year-old Joseph, hailing from Kottayam district in Kerala, made it a historic 400m hurdles golden double by edging past his other rivals in a very tight finish.

Joseph, who cleverly dipped his face in the end to cross the finish line, won the gold in a season's best of 49.96secs.

Bandar Yahya Sharahili of Saudi Arabia, who crossed the finish line third, got the silver in 50.29 after Japan’s defending champion Kenji Narisako was disqualified for a technical infringement.

India also got a bronze medal, fetched by Usha protégé Tintu Luka, who could not sustain her front-running and flagged on the home stretch to finish third behind Margarita Matsko of Kazakhstan and Truong Thanh Hang of Vietnam.

Tintu clocked two minutes, 1.36 seconds which is not her personal best as she has clocked under two minutes in her career while the gold went to Matsko who timed a personal best 2:00.29. The silver was taken by Hang, also with her career-best 2:00.91.

Tintu's compatriot and more experienced runner Sinimole Paulose came in seventh in 2:06.95. The 23-year-old Ashwini hailing from Udipi, held back the challenge from Satomi Kubokura of Japan, the continent's fastest this year, and Wang Xing of China.

It is the first title for India in the women's low hurdles event since P T Usha lit up the Seoul Asian Games athletics arena in 1986 with her four-gold feat. Till the last two hurdles into the home stretch it looked like a three-way race between Ashwini, the Japanese and the Chinese before the Indian Ashwini leaped over the final hurdle and raced to glory.

Wang overtook the fast-tiring Kubokura after the final hurdle to take the silver in 56.76 and left the pre-race Japanese favourite, who clocked 56.83, with the bronze.

Ashwini had said before coming to the Games she was not sure of winning a medal let alone a gold, but once she performed in the heats she thought she had a good chance of winning the gold. "Coming here I did not expect any medal. But after I ran my heat I saw that I had a chance for the gold medal. I was in lane no. 4 and the other athletes were ahead of me and I had to make up a lot of ground. But when I was ahead I was sure of the gold," said the young athlete.

"I am tall and so I have long strides. I started running 400m hurdles in Udipi in India. One month ago, I focused on the 400m hurdles," Ashwini said after her triumphant run. — PTI

Guangzhou, November 25
Teen sensation Vikas Krishan ended Indian boxing’s 12-year-old gold medal drought in the Asian Games by winning the lightweight (60kg) title but Dinesh Kumar (81kg) settled for the silver after losing in the finals here today.

India had not won a boxing gold at the Asiad since 1998 when the flamboyant Dingko Singh fetched the bantamweight top honours and it took a little known teenager from Haryana to break the jinx.

The 18-year-old Vikas stunned defending champion Qing Hu of China 5-4 in the lightweight 60kg final that was low on thrill as the Indian decided to play defensive.

World Youth champion and a bronze-medallist at the inaugural Youth Olympics, Vikas kept a shell guard which ultimately proved impregnable for his rival.

With scores tied 1-1 at the end of the first three minutes, Hu pushed Vikas out of sheer frustration in the second round and was handed a warning which cost him crucial two points.

The warning ultimately proved decisive as the two boxers could manage just one scoring punch each in the final round, which was just enough for Vikas to repeat Dingko's feat.

However, Dinesh proved no match for defending champion Uzbek Elshod Rasulov and lost 4-10.

The Arjuna awardee was on the backfoot from the word go as Rasulov took the attack to him with a combination of powerful bodyblows and well-timed jabs.

Dinesh’s attempted uppercuts could neither break Rasulov’s defence nor fetch him any points.

Leading 1-0 in the opening round, Rasulov went on a rampage in the next two rounds and Dinesh found it extremely tough to keep pace with the proceedings.

Olympic and World Championship bronze-medallist Vijender Singh (75kg), V Santhosh Kumar (64kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) are the other three Indian boxers who would be fighting for gold tomorrow. In the 2006 Asiad, India had won a couple of bronze medals and the current performance is a marked improvement from that edition as three more pugilists from the country are scheduled to fight their final bouts tomorrow. — PTI

Guangzhou, November 25
The Indian men’s hockey team lifted itself from the disappointment of missing a final berth and clinched the bronze medal after defeating four-time champions South Korea in the third-place playoff at the Asian Games here today.

India beat the 2002 and 2006 champions with a lone second half goal through Tushar Khandekar to end their campaign on a better note than four years ago in Doha where they ended up a poor fifth. Having their dreams of winning the gold destroyed by the 3-4 defeat against Malaysia in the semifinals, the Rajpal Singh-led side outsmarted the fitter and faster Koreans.

By virtue of this bronze, India ended their eight-year-long medal drought in the quadrennial event after having finished on the podium (silver) in the 2002 Busan Games.

India’s win also ended double defending champions South Korea’s honeymoon in Asian Games hockey. This is the first instance since the 1986 Seoul Games that they finished without a medal.

India held on to the 40th minute field goal notched by Khandekar who, left unmarked in front of the Korean goal, pushed in a long diagonal hit into the D sent in by Gurbaj Singh, for the all-important goal at the Aoti hockey field.

The Indians kept the pace down in the first half against the speedy Koreans and then upped the ante in the second half in which they got their match-winner but also muffed a couple of golden opportunities to score more. The player of the match for India was goalkeeper Bharat Chetri who brought off fine saves in defending the penalty corners in which the Koreans are adept with variations.

Korea earned two penalty corners in the opening half and one in the second but all came to naught due to Chetri’s fine stint under the Indian bar who leaped to his right and blocked the drag-flicks from the rival players.

India were also unsuccessful with the two penalty corner efforts they got, one of which - taken indirectly when Sandeep Singh relayed the ball to Dhananjay Mahadik who essayed a shot that should have gone in but for Korean defender and captain Lee Nam Yong making a goal-line save in the 24th minute. — PTI

Brisbane, November 25
Peter Siddle took six wickets, including a rare Ashes hat-trick, as Australia took command of the first test against England at the Gabba on Thursday by bowling out the tourists for 260. Siddle celebrated his 26th birthday in style by dismissing Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad in successive deliveries after tea as England collapsed from a strong position at 197-4.

In reply Australia were 25-0 at stumps, with Simon Katich and Shane Watson on 15 and nine respectively.

Brief Scores: Australia 0 for 25 (Katich 15*, Watson 6*) trail England 260 (Bell 76, Cook 67, Siddle 6-54) by 235 runs

Siddle, who was surprisingly selected ahead of Doug Bollinger for his first test in ten months, earlier halted England's momentum in the second session when he took the wickets of dangerman Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, both nicking to the slips, in the space of 11 balls.

He reaped rewards for a probing line outside off stump after tea getting Cook to edge to Shane Watson at first slip after a patient 67. Then Prior was late trying to prod the ball through the leg side and saw his off stump uprooted. And on the hat-trick ball, Stuart Broad was caught on the toe from a full delivery to make Siddle the 11th Australian to grab a test hat-trick and the fifth of his countrymen to do so in England-Australia contests. — AFP

Guangzhou, November 25
India’s Tintu Luka won the bronze medal in 800 metres event of the track and field competitions but team-mate Sinimole Paulose finished a disappointing seventh in the Asian Games here today. Luka, a protegee of former sprint champion PT Usha, clocked 2:01.36 to clinch the bronze while Paulose timed 2:06.95. Luka led the pack right from the start, but couldn't keep pace in the last 50 metres.

Kazakhstan’s Margarita Matsko won the gold medal with a timing of 2:00.29 while Vietnam’s Thanh Hang Truong clocked 2:00.91 to settle for silver, at the Aoti Main Stadium.

Both medallists recorded their personal best timing in the discipline. Luka had qualified for the finals yesterday as the leading timer, clocking 2:03.85 to win the women’s 800m heat.

Paulose also qualified for the finals after finishing third in heat number one with a timing of 2:03.83. At the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, national record holder Luka had finished sixth in women’s 800m with a timing of 2:01.25s. It may be mentioned that Luka broke the long-standing record of national champion Shiny Wilson and was always a strong medal contender here at the Games. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Khatri wins bronze in wrestling
Mausam Khatri today gave the Indian wrestling contingent its third medal at the ongoing Asian Games after bagging a bronze in the men's 96kg freestyle competition here. Khatri got the better of Jaegang Kim of South Korea 3-1 to grab the third position in a contest that just over 17 minutes. Earlier in the day, Khatri, despite suffering a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Kazakhstan's Taimuraz Tigiyev got a chance to take the bronze home after overcoming Syria's Alkarrad Raja in the repechage bout, at the Huagong Gymnasium. The Indian wrestlers had clinched a couple of bronze medals earlier in the event.