Ace discus thrower Vikas Gowda clinched the first gold for India as the home team won three medals on the second day to make their presence felt in the 20th Asian Athletics Championships, on Thursday. Gowda, who turns 30 on Friday, threw the iron disc to a creditable 64.90m in his fourth attempt to win his first gold of the Asian Championships in his fifth appearances. He had won a silver each in the 2005 and 2011 editions.
With this win, Gowda has booked a berth for next month’s World Championships in Moscow as each of the winner in the ongoing Asian meet automatically qualifies for the global mega event. M R Poovamma won a silver in women’s 400m race while unheralded Ratiram Saini bagged a bronze in men’s 10,000m race as India swelled their medal tally to five (1 gold, 1 silver, three bronze).
After two days, China leads the medal tally with five gold, two silver and one bronze while India are in fourth position. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are second and third respectively with two gold each. Gowda holds the national record of 66.28secs while his season’s best is 65.82m.