KATHMANDU, SEPT 28: There were no challengers threatening Sunita Rani today, no one to push her to the limit. Yet, the 19-year-old Indian ran her personal best in the women's 10,000m taking gold and then, dragged her aching body back on the Dasaratha Stadium tracks to win a lonely 1500m race. Both the wins came with South Asian Federation (SAF) Games records.There was nobody clipping at Gulab Chand's heels either. The short-statured runner from Suiyan, Benaras, led from start to finish to take the men's 1500 gold in 3:50.06secs. Memories of being boxed around in the 800m yesterday were strong, and the desire for gold even stronger. ``What happened yesterday is history. Jaane dijiye (let it be). I wanted the gold badly and got it, that is more important,'' a relieved Gulab said after the race.The gutsy runner however, said that he had decided to pull out of tomorrow's 10,000m. He had hurt his right heel in the Lucknow inter-sate meet a fortnight back. ``The heel is hurting again. Let us see what thedoctor says,'' said the 25-year-old runner.Gulab admitted that he was way off his personal best but added: ``I ran without pacemakers. You cannot hope for a good time without any challenge.''Sunita erased Sri Lankan S Nilmini Jayasena's 10,000 SAF mark of 35:42.74secs to win in 34:38.72 secs. Her personal best prior to this was 34:41.00. However, Sunita's tenacity was more on show in the 1500m when she led from start to break Rosa Kutty's SAF record. Sunita timed 04:14.23 to Rosa's 4:19.65.Sunita, who has improved tremendously in the past one year, said that she wanted to pull out of the 1500m, but changed her mind at the last moment. ``I was not too sure that I would be able to run 1500 after running 25 laps in the morning. I think it worked out fine in the end,'' she said.Two more records were shattered on a day India took five of the seven gold medals in athletics. Sanjay Kumar Rai, who yesterday flopped in his pet event, long jump, won the men's triple jump leaping to a distance of 15.87m. Heerased the mark of 15.83m set by BS Vinod in 1995.The other record came from Sri Lankan Damayanthi Darsha who smashed the 200m record winning gold in 22.68secs. She clipped the 1995 SAF mark of 22.95secs set by compatriot Susanthika Jayasinghe in Madras.Gurmeet Kaur won women's javelin gold with a throw of 52.38m, but the disappointment for India came in the day's most exciting and close event, men's 200m. Ajay Singh, who led all the way, eased up on his final stride and raised his hands in triumph as he crossed the line. He was a shattered man later when he results were announced, for Pakistan's Maqsood Ahmad and Bangladesh's Mahboob Alam had just about lunged past him at the finish.Locked in a photofinish, Ahmad and Alam brought in identical times of 21.15secs, but the gold went to the Pakistani after some deliberation by the technical committee. Singh took bronze in 21.16.
