Gomathi Marimuthu opened India’s gold medal tally at the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar with a superb finish in the women’s 800m final, recording a personal best timing of 2:02.70 seconds.
Wang Chunyu of China finished second (2:02.96) while Margarita Mukasheva of Kazakhstan finished third.
Gomathi did not have the best of finishes to the first lap after being pushed down to the back end but she bounced back in tremendous fashion to join the front two.
As the top three started pulling away in the final stretch, the Indian was still trailing the Chinese athlete. But with a tremendous final push, Gomathi edged past Chunyu and celebrated her gold medal.
Elsewhere, it was a silver double in javelin throw for India as Shivpal Singh finished second in men’s event with a personal best attempt of 86.23 metres.
It was a superb effort from the Indian, who joined Annu Rani to finish second on the podium. The throw also saw Singh clear the mark for the World Championships later in the year.
