Short Corner — Chandigarh

Sunita Rani pipped for goldPhoto-Finishes in long distances events are a rarity, but it is important for an athlete to sprint through the...

Sunita Rani pipped for gold
Photo-Finishes in long distances events are a rarity, but it is important for an athlete to sprint through the finish with whatever reserves left. India’s tiny Sunita Rani paid a heavy price while learning that important lesson as she was beaten at the tape by two-hundredths of a second by a rank outsider, Supriati Sutono of Indonesia in the women’s 5,000 metres final. Coming out of virtually nowhere, Sutono made a bold bid in the last 50 metres when the race looked all but over with Sunita as the winner.

Relay record
Even without their main star, Paramjit Singh, India’s first medallist in the men’s 400m since 1982, the Indian foursome gave ample signs of fetching another medal from the 4x400m relay.

With Lijo David, P.Ramachandran, Dinesh Rawat and Jata Shankar running this evening, the Indians clocked a new national record time of three minutes 04.86 seconds, which was five hundredths of a second better than old mark.

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Spirited battle
Unmindful of the reputation of their formidable opponents, India waged a spirited battle before going down 1-2 in the women’s hockey final to South Korea, who won their fourth successive Asian Games title in Bangkok today.

Gold for Yoon
Yoon Yong-Il, who will lead the Korean challenge against India in the Davis Cup clash in Seoul early next year, capped a great Asian Games when he beat southpaw Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in the men’s singles tennis final on Friday. Yoon was taking his second gold medal of the Games.

Central on top
Hrishikesh Kanitkar stands between Central Zone and the latter’s surge towards claiming the Duleep Trophy. The West Zone skipper’s assured posture while braving a minefield of a track provides the only ray of hope for his team after two days into the summit clash in Aurangabad.

Frustrating
There is nothing more frustrating for a cricket player than sitting around the dressing room waiting for play to start. The first day of the first Test here on Friday was abandoned without a ball being bowled, due to low cloud cover, bad light and a persistent drizzle.