India completed an unprecedented success in athletics events in the Commonwealth Games here as they collected one gold and four bronze today to take their medal count to 12. Indian women's 4x400m relay team added another gold to the one won yesterday by discus thrower Krishna Poonia as medals rained for the home country in front of a cheering near-capacity crowd at the Jawaharalal Nehru Stadium.
The men's and women's 4x100m relay teams, triple jumper Renjith Maheswary and javelin thrower Kashinath Naik added a bronze each.
After today's events, only men and women's marathon remained in the athletics competition. In terms of number of medals won, it turned out to be the most productive day for India. Yesterday, India swept women's discus throw with Poonia winning gold to break a 52-year-old drought, while Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil bagged a silver and bronze respectively.
The 12 medals, including a gold, is more than the 10 medals the country had won in the earlier editions.
The women's 4X400m relay quartet of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and Mandeep Kaur set the track ablaze by winning the race in 3:27.77, ahead of Nigeria (3:28.72) and England (3:29.51). Manjeet was running second at the end of first leg and Jose maintained it. Akkunji then took India to lead with a fast run in the third leg before Mandeep saw off a late surge from a Nigerian to cross the finishing line ahead of the rest.
There were scenes of wild celebration among the Indian officials present at the VIP stand and among the vociferous crowd. National coach Bahadur Singh termed it as the beginning of India's emergence as an athletics power.
"We have shown that we can win medals at the highest level. Athletics competition in the Commonwealth Games is of high standard. If we maintain this level for another 3-4 years, India can become an athletics power," Bahadur told PTI.
The medal-surge began with the women's 4x100m relay team of Geetha Satti, Srabani Nanda, P K Priya and H M Jyothi finishing third in a photo finish with a timing of 45.25secs, just one-hundredth of a second behind second-placed Ghana (45.24secs). England won gold in 44.19secs.
It looked like India's final-leg runner H M Jyothi would cross the finishing line at second but Ghanaian Janet Amponsah did better and the home team had to be content with a bronze. India clocked 45.25secs, while Ghana clocked 45.24secs.
The men's quartet of Rahamatulla Molla, Krishnakumar Rane, Shammer Mon and Mohd Abdul Qureshi smashed the national record with a timing of 38.89secs.
The same quartet had set a national record of 39.00secs in the semifinals yesterday. India were lagging behind in the first and second legs but Mon took them to fourth place by the end of third leg in the field of eight. Qureshi beat a runner in the final leg to take India to bronze. England won the gold in 38.74secs while Jamaica settled for a silver in 38.79secs.
Triple jumper Renjith Maheswary broke his own national record by clearing 17.07m in his third of the six attempts. His earlier national record was 17.04m.
Till the fifth and penultimate round, Maheswary was second, behind eventual gold winner Tosin Oke (17.16m) of Nigeria, but Cameroonian Lucien Mamba jumped 17.14m in his final attempt to win silver.
"I though I would win a silver but I am happy that I won a bronze. I dedicate the bronze to my daughter Jia (born in August)," he said after the race.
In the men's 4x400 race, India finsihed seventh in 3:07.60.
"I am too happy to say anything. We worked very hard and by the grace of God we finally got our prize. We practised non stop for one and a half months to get our coordination right. We have improved a lot and we have broken the national record," he said.
But the surprise medallist of the day was Kashinath Naik, who cleared 74.29m, in men's javelin throw. The gold and silver were won by Jarrod Bannister (81.72m) of Australia and Stuart Farquhar (78.15m) of New Zealand respectively.
"I am not satisfied by my performance as I could do better. But I am happy that India won its first medal in javelin throw," Naik said later.
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