Asian Games: Sudha Singh wins fifth gold for India

GUANGZHOU: India enjoyed a remarkable double gold on the opening day of athletics at the Asian Games on Sunday as Bahrain drew first blood in their battle with Qatar for men's middle and long-distance supremacy.

Preeja Sreedharan led an Indian one-two in the women's 10,000m while team-mate Sudha Singh claimed a last-gasp victory in the women's 3000m steeplechase.

Sreedharan produced an astonishing burst of speed down the back straight to clock 31min 50.28sec for gold.

The 28-year-old took teammate Kavita Raut with her as they both out-sprinted Bahrain's Ethiopian-born Shitaya Habtegebrel in the home stretch.

Sudha Singh made it double Indian gold by just holding on from China's Jin Yuan, whose last-gasp effort was not quite enough to claim first place in front of more than 50,000 raucous spectators at the Aota Main Stadium in Guangzhou.

Sudha, who set an Indian national record when finishing fifth at the Commonwealth Games, finished in 9min 55.67sec, with Jin taking silver at just four-hundredths of a second behind.

Three Kenyan-born athletes completed the podium for the men's 10,000m, Bahrain's Ali Hasan Mahboob eluding Qatari duo James Kwalia, the defending champion, and Felix Kibore for gold.

Mahboob, previously known as Silas Kirui before changing allegiance, won the 10,000m crown in the Doha Asiad in 2006, and now has a good chance of going for the 10,000-5,000m double here and pushing Bahrain up the table in the medals fight between the two Gulf states.

Aside from Kwalia and Japan's Kayoko Fukushi in the women's 10,000m, it was also not a good evening for defending Asiad champion Gong Lijao of China, who lost her women's shot title to compatriot Li Long (19.94m) and had to make do with silver.

But Tajikistan's Dilshod Nazarov came good in the men's hammer throw, the reigning champion, and his country's one and only athletics medallist, destroying the field.

"I feel very proud that I won the first ever gold medal for Tajikistan at the Guangzhou Asian Games," said Nazarov, whose 76.44m easily saw him past Iranian Kaveh Mousavi (68.90m) and Japan's Hiroaki Doi (68.72m).

The trio of top drawcards in the men's 100m all qualified for Monday's semi-finals, when the final will also be raced, Oman's Barakat al-Harthi setting the lead time in the five heats of 10.26sec, a new personal best.

Defending champion Yahya Habeeb of Saudi Arabia, Qatar's Nigerian-born Asian record holder Samuel Francis and Japan's Masahi Eriguchi all negotiated their heats smoothly.

"This is my first run in a long time. I'm very happy with the first round," Francis, the Asian record holder at 9.99sec, said of his 10.43sec heat time, one-hundredth behind China's Zheng Dongsheng.

"I was hoping for a better time, but knowing I was in the lead I slowed down."

The first gold medal in the athletics programme was won earlier in the day by China's Wang Hao in the men's 20km race walking, a spurt 4km from home securing gold ahead of team-mate Chu Yafei to give China the perfect start.

"This is the first gold medal in athletics in the Asian Games. It's very important and we could not afford to lose it," said the 21-year-old Wang.