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| Wednesday, 29 September 2004 |
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Pradeep Kumar strikes gold in Singapore SINGAPORE, Tuesday (AFP) Sri Lankan sprinter Rohan Pradeep Kumar won the men's 400 metres in 46.18 seconds at Asia's first 'all star' athletics championships held in Singapore on Tuesday. Kazakhstan's Genndadiy Chernovol won the 100 metres in 10.65 seconds and Kazakhstan's Yevgeny Meleshenko won the 400 metres hurdles in 49.56 seconds. Indian long jump queen Anju Bobby George, who finished sixth at the Athens Games, won her event at the Asian All Stars Championships with a best effort of 6.66 metres, then predicted a record athletics haul for Asia in Beijing. "I think Asians will get more than 10 golds at the next Olympics. It's going to be in China, so we can expect more gold medals from them, and there is Japan, India, Kazakhstan," Anju told reporters. Anju, ranked sixth in the world, was the highest profile athlete to compete in Singapore out of a total of 86 competitors from 18 countries. She defeated Kazakhstan's Yelena Kochsheyeva and the Philippines' Torres Marastella, who both jumped 6.41 metres, to win gold and take home a winner's cheque of 2,000 US dollars. In some of the other women's events, China's Yun Feng won the 100 metres hurdles in 13.47 seconds, India's Manjit Kaur won the 400 metres in 53.08 seconds and China's Ni Xiaoli won the 100 metres sprint in 11.75 seconds. International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack, who was in Singapore to help promote the event and study the city-state's athletics program, also gave an optimistic outlook for Asia. "I'm very happy with the sport's development (in Asia)," Diack said, adding the blue riband 100 metre sprints could just as easily be won by an Asian as anyone else in Beijing. People say Asians can't sprint. That's absolutely wrong." Diack also cited the spectacular world record-equalling win of China's Liu Xiang in the 110 metres hurdles in Athens as proof Asians could compete with the world in sprint events. "It's going to be very difficult for the world... to compete with Asia in Beijing. We will have to work very hard to keep our level." In Athens, Asians won just four gold track and field gold medals. Diack said Asia was currently only fulfilling 25 percent of its athletics potential, but he was confident events such as Tuesday's meet would help deepen the talent pool. He said that out of about 100 major athletics events held around the world each year, between 75 and 80 were held in Europe. Diack said he wanted the inaugural Asian All Stars Championships, a low-key affair with few stars, a small crowd and slow times, to become a prestigious annual event that attracted the best athletes in the region. |
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