Jakarta: Machettira Raju Poovamma, who along with Hima Das, Saritaben Laxmanbhai Gayakwad and Velluva Koroth Vismaya bagged a gold medal in Women’s 4 x 400m Relay event at the ongoing 18th edition of the Asian Games, said her team didn’t have Silver and Bronze medals on the cards and were always eyeing for Gold.
“We had to win a gold medal. Silver and bronze medals were not on our cards. We would have valued them, but gold medal was much more precious and we have done it,” Poovamma told ANI on Thursday. The team claimed a top-podium finish after they completed the race within a clock timing of 3:28.72 in the final round.
While Bahrain squad won silver with a clock timing of 3:30.61, Vietnamese athletes settled for bronze as they clocked 3:33:23. Meanwhile, India’s 4x400m men’s relay team won a Silver medal. The Indian team – comprising of Kunhu Muhammed, Dharun Ayyasamy, Mohd. Anas and Arokia Rajiv – clocked 3:01.85 to finish behind Qatar who won gold in an Asian Games record time of 3:00.56.
Talking about their performance, Dharun told ANI: “I’m very happy. We were aiming for gold but couldn’t win it. But, it was our first time so we are happy with our performance. Sports Minister and Sports Federation supported us. For more than 6 months, we were preparing for Asian Games only. We went for training in three countries. We got a medal for our hard work.”
