Poulose, Shobha bag silver

Sinimol Poulose and J J Shobha won a silver medal each while Susmita Singha Roy bagged a bronze as the Indian women continued to outshine their male counterparts on Day 2 of the Asian Athletics Championships in Amman, Jordan.

The women's heptathlon event yielded two medals for India, with Shobha accumulating 5356 points to finish behind gold medal winner Kazak Irina Naumenko (5617) and ahead of compatriot Susmita Singha Roy, who totalled 5154 for the bronze.

Shobha came out on tops in the last two events – the long jump (5.97m) and javelin throw (40.47) -- and finished fourth in the 800 metres.

Susmita, on her part, placed fourth in the javelin throw and third in long jump and finished just ahead of Shobha in the 800 metres.

Twenty-four-old Sinimol brought cheer to the Indian camp when she finished second in the 800 metres, clocking 2:06.15 seconds to finish behind Vietnam's Truong Thanh Hang, who won the gold with a timing of 2:04.77 seconds.

Sinimol, whose personal best is 2:02.02, said a gush of wind pushed her back on the final back straight when the Vietnamese accelerated. Japan's Ayako Jinnouchi won the bronze. Sushma Devi finished fourth, clocking 2:10.63 seconds.

The three medals, won on Thursday, took India's tally at the championships to four after Preeja Sreedharan had won the 10,000m silver on Wednesday.

The Indian men went empty-handed on the second day.

In the 10,000m final, Surendra Singh and Santosh Kumar could only manage fifth and sixth places respectively. While Surendra ended up with a timing of 31:05.68s, Santosh clocked 31:16.43 seconds.

Meanwhile, Manjeet Kaur (55.70 seconds) and Chitra Soman (53.60) qualified for the finals of women's 400m after finishing second and first respectively in the heats.

In the men's 400m hurdles, Joseph Abraham and Kuldev Singh qualified for the finals after finishing second and fourth respectively in the heats.