Gunasekaran, Karan scorch tracks on wet, cold day

Dubai - India, Iran snap four Asian records on day three at Asia-Oceania para-athletics

India's Anandan Gunasekaran, the champion 'blade' runner, and Ram Karan Singh, who is completely blind, scorched the tracks on a wet and cold day in Dubai, Wednesday. 
Negotiating the rainy conditions beautifully, Gunasekaran, a Bengaluru-based sapper with the Madras Engineering Group, and Delhi post graduate student, Karan, broke Asian records when they won the men's 400m T44 and 5,000m T13 events in the IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships at the Police Officers' Club Stadium.
Iran too had a great day when they added two more golds and broke two Asian marks. Iran now have eight golds to top the standings, ahead of India who have six golds.
Gunasekaran powered past Sri Lankan Ajith Hettiarachchi to win the men's 400m T44 in a new Asian record of 54.67 shattering the mark of 54.82 set by China's Zhiming Liu at the London Games in 2012.
Twenty five-year old Karan, who won the 800m T13 silver two years ago at the Asian Para Games, led from the half way mark and stretched his lead as he raced against the clock, finishing in 16:15.47 - more than 15 seconds faster than the previous Asian mark of 2006.
Karan, once partially blind, lost his eyesight completely in a police lathi-charge on differently abled men and women in Delhi when they (differently abled) sought for a review on the ground report for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill through an Ordinance.
Karan who has still to qualify for the Rio Paralympics, said: "The weather affected the others even more, I think. The heavy downpours and lowering of temperatures all of a sudden from the pleasant weather during the first two days while training for the event affected all of us."
"I feel very good, and very proud to get a gold medal for India," said Gunasekaran who achieved the qualification standard needed for a berth to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games this year.
"I will give an even better performance at the Paralympic Games now. I felt very well before this competition and I believe I will perform very well in my next competitions too."
The 28-year-old junior commissioned officer, added: "I will try, I will try to get under 50 seconds. I've been practising the 400m for only two months. Last month I ran 56 seconds and after one month's hard work I have run 54.67. I have many more months to practice."
The Iranians who smashed Asian marks were Nour Mohammad Arekhi (F11) who won the men's discus throw F11-13 with a 35.16m (835 points), shattering a mark which had stood since 2002 by 3.53 metres; and Mahnaz Amini Nogourani (F57) who improved on her own Asian record in the women's shot put (F56/57), throwing 8.10m (651 points).
The home crowd had something to remember during the day when UAE's Mariam Matroushi won silver in the women's javelin (F46) taking the hosts' medal tally to seven in this championship being held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council (DSC).
Malaysia's world champion Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi claimed gold as expected in the men's 100m T36, and Saudi Arabia's Hani Alnakhli (F33) won his second gold medal with a best of 8.74m (713 points) in javelin F33/34 to add to his victory in the men's discus throw F33/34 on the opening day.
moni@khaleejtimes.com