Bhubaneswar, Aug. 6: Odia para athlete Jayanti Behera put behind her failure at the London World Para Athletics Championships (Senior) and clinched gold for India in the women's 400m event at the World Para Athletics Junior Championships in Nottwil in Switzerland.
Behera claimed gold with a time of 1:01.37 minutes. Chile's Cerna Amanda bagged silver while Hong Kong's Fu Long Kei finished in the last of the podium places.
Earlier, the Odisha girl had bagged silver in the women's 200m event with a time of 28.04 seconds. Behera was the lone sprinter to represent India in the women's 200m and 400m events at the championships.
Behera had finished a disappointing sixth in the women's 400m T-47 (for athletes with limb impairments) with a time of 1:03.49 minutes at the World Para Athletics Championships held in London last month.
In another development, India's medal hopes in the women's 100m at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in London were dashed after Dutee Chand crashed out in the first round late on Saturday night.
Dutee, India's national record holder in the women's 100m, bowed out in the first round with a time of 12.07 seconds. It was her slowest run this season. She ran in the fifth of the six heats, where she finished in sixth place. Overall, Dutee finished in 38th place out of 47 athletes.
Dutee said the disqualification of the German athlete in the next lane caused her to lose focus.
"The girl next to me was disqualified due to a false start and I got nervous. I could not come out of the blocks as fast as I would have wanted, so the timing was poor. The temperature was also cold. I had run with better timings in India because at this time the temperature there (in India) is more suitable. I need a bit of warm temperature," she told PTI after her race. Dutee and Jauna Murmu were the only athletes from the state to have qualified for the championships in London by virtue of their performances in the Asian Athletics Championship in the state capital last month.
Jauna is scheduled to take part in the women's 4x400m relay. The state government had announced cash incentives of Rs 5 lakh each for the sprinters.
