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Rain delay has Indian athletes fuming

Torrential rains lazhed Fukuoka, inundating the area around the Hisgashirao Park area where the Hakata-na-Mori Stadium, venue of the ongoing Asian Athletic Championships. And gave cause for the Indian camp to get hot under the collar.

The organisers' decision to postpone some athletics events to Wednesday morning, the final day of the championships, is what is causing the heartburn.

At the time of the interruption, medal hope Neelam Singh was halfway through the third round of the women's discus throw event, with the Indian comfortably in the lead.

Having thrown the disc 56.34 metres in the second round, Neelam was just getting ready for her third throw when the competition was halted. China's Xiao Yanling with 53.32, and Yu Xin with 56.33cm, were trailing the Indian at that stage, with another Indian, Swaranjit Kaur, lying fourth with a best throw of 50.21m.

Interestingly, while halting the discus event, the organisers allowed the heptathlon to continue till the rain really intensified. And even at that stage, it was announced that that event would be completed late Tuesday night, under lights if necessary.

This led Lalit Bhanot, secretary, Amateur Athletic Federation of India, to lodge a formal protest with the organisers, arguing that they did not wait long enough before halting the discus event.

Jyotirmoyee Sikdar meanwhile picked up a second bronze, even as P T Usha moved into position for a possible gold with a superb run, timing 23.27 seconds in the longer of the two sprints. Usha is a firm favourite for a medal in the 200m event, as is the men's 4x400 metres team, which in the beats clocked a new national record time of 3:06.33.

Usha, both in the heats and the semis, looked good in the 200m, getting off to fine starts and having enough in hand at the finish to ward off a strong field. In the semifinal, she showed a clean pair of heels to Kazak star Svetlana Bodritskaya, who had earlier pipped her to the silver in the 400m. For Usha, the 200m seems the better event, as the shorter distance negates the disadvantage of her age, which has seen her tire over the last leg of the 400.

The men's 4 x 400 metres quartet, anchored by Paramjit Singh who cracked 46 seconds in the semis, came in second behind favourites Japan. Their effort of 3:06.33 was a new national record, improving the existing mark by 0.33 seconds.