Lakshmanan, Chitra win gold at Asian indoor event

Ashgabat (Turkmenistan): India enjoyed a successful outing at the fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games here on Tuesday with Govindan Lakshmanan and P.U. Chitra winning gold in their respective events.

Lakshmanan registered a time of eight minutes and 2.30 seconds to win the men's 3,000 metre title.

This is the third continental title for Lakshmanan this year. The 26-year-old had won gold in the 10,000m and 5,000m events at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar last July.

Chitra, on the other hand, took gold in the women's 1,500m event with a time of 4:27.32.

The 22-year-old from Kerala had won gold in the same event at the Asian Athletics Championships as well which earned her a spot in the World Championships.

India are now 10th in the medals tally at the 26-nation event with three gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

Purnima Hembram had won gold in the women's pentathlon earlier during the event.

The silver medals have been bagged by Tajinder Toor in men's shot put and Sanjiv Jadhav in women's 3,000m.

Neena Varakil has taken bronze in women's long jump while Dharmendar finished third in the men's freestyle (70 kilogram) category of the belt wrestling competition.