Five more Indians secure quota places for Youth Olympics

Bangkok: India earned five quota places in athletics for the upcoming Youth Olympics on the concluding day of the Asian Area qualification event here on Thursday.

Sreekiran Nandakumar won the 800m race to book a quota place while Anu Kumar finished second as India dominated the half-mile event. Kumar missed out as Youth Olympics quota is only being awarded to one winner per country.

Nandakumar clocked a time of 1:50.93 seconds while Kumar completed the race in 1:51.13 seconds.

The result would be particularly satisfying for Tamil Nadu's Nandakumar who had been forced to drop out of the final of Junior Asian Championships last month after suffering from a severe migraine just before his contest. As a result, it was Kumar who had won that race in Gifu, Japan.

The day started in a positive note for the Indian contingent as Suraj Soren claimed a silver medal in the 10000m race walk — an event where three quota spots were on offer.

Soren clinched his medal with a time 47:40.61 seconds. He finished just a fraction of a second behind China's Xin Wang who clocked 47:40.11 seconds. Japan's Yusuke Iwakawa claimed the bronze with a time of 47:45.30 seconds.

Also earning a quota place for the Youth Olympics was 3000m runner Seema. Needing to finish on the podium to claim a quota spot, the athlete from Himachal Pradesh clocked 9:55.87 seconds to claim the silver medal behind Japan's MiyakiSugata who recorded a time of 9:40.82 seconds. Another Japanese Hidori Kidokoro clinched the bronze with a time of 9:57.54 seconds.

Another Indian to earn a quota spot on the day was hurdler Vishnu Priya Jayaprakasan. With only the top two finishers earning a quota spot to Buenos Aires, the Kerala sprinter edged out China's Changwei Lu to claim the silver medal. Jayaprakasan clocked a time of 1:00.95 seconds.

The race was won by Chinese Taipei's JuiHsuan Yang who clocked 59.78 seconds.

Delhi sprinter Nisar Ahmed also booked a berth for Youth Olympics despite finishing fifth in overall ranking with a time of 22.16 seconds in 200m finals.