Jinson Johnson wins gold in 800m, India finish with 13 gold

Jinson Johnson claimed an easy victory in the mens 800m run as India managed a rich haul of 22 medals, including 13 gold, at the Asian Games invitational tournament that concluded here today.
Johnsons gold was one of three medals won by Indian athletes on the final days competition at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium.
India won gold in the mens and womens 4x400m events. India also won a silver medal through Sarita Singh in the womens hammer throw and a bronze through Kamalraj Kanaraj in the mens triple jump event.
The results of the final day meant that India finished with 13 gold medals, five silver and four bronze.

Johnson, a former silver and bronze medallist at the Asian Championships, was by far the superior runner in the competition. He clocked 1:47:96 to finish way ahead of Raed Aljadni, who was over six seconds behind with a time of 1:54:17 seconds.
Competing in the 400m men's event, Jithu Baby, Kunhu Mohammad combined with Sumit Kumar and Jeevan Suresh to claim gold with a time of 3:07:06 seconds and finish 0.63 seconds ahead of the Chinese Taipei quartet.

In the 400m relay, the womens quartet of Hima Das, Sonia Baishya, Saritaben Gayakwad and Nithya Shree Ananda was guaranteed another gold as it ran unopposed. The Indians recorded a modest time of 3:37:76 seconds.

Sarita Singh, a national record holder in hammer throw, was never really in the contest against defending Asian Champion Luo Na of China, who recorded a personal best of 72.11m. Singh had to be content with silver with a best throw of 61.75m, which was well short of her personal best of 65.25m.
Also performing well below his potential was Kamalraj Kanagraj, who recorded a best of 15.73m to finish with bronze in the mens triple jump behind Chinas Zhu Yaming and Malaysias Ismail Hakimi, who cleared 16.79m and 16.24m respectively.
The effort was disappointing from Kanagraj, who only last month had jumped 16.23m to claim silver at the Asian Indoor championships.