Bangkok: Indian athletes dominated in the first leg of Asian GP series here today, with Olympic hopeful women’s 4x400m relay team outpacing China to win gold with a timing of 3:32.55 seconds, though the performance still fell short of a possible Beijing berth.

Top 16 teams, based on their best timings as on July 16, will make the cut for Beijing and the Indian quartet is still outside that bracket with china at the 16th position. This means the Indians will have to produce a much better show in the second leg at Korat (Thailand) on June 27 and in the third in Hanoi in Vietnam on June 30.

The Asian GP series is the last qualifying chance for the Asian relay teams.

On Monday, Mandeep Kaur, S. Geeta, M. Poovamma and Chitra Soman were surprisingly never under pressure from the Chinese and the Thais, who finished second and third with timings of 3:35.76 and 3:40.14, respectively. Their male counterparts -- Bibin Mathew, Bhupendra singh, S.K. Mortaja and K.M. Binu -- also won comfortably, clocking 3:07.26 ahead of the Sri Lankan quartet (3:10.91).

In women’s 400m race, Mandeep Kaur, who has already bettered olympic 'B' standard of 52.35, missed 'A' standard by a whisker with an effort of 51.94. In the women’s long jump, India’s ace jumper Anju Bobby George, who has already qualified for Beijing, yet again failed to impress, winning gold with a modest 6.41 metres.

Harwant Kaur, who has already attained olympic 'A' standard of 61 metres, finished second in women’s shot put with a throw of 60.78, while Seema Antil and Krishna Poonia were fourth and fifth.

In the middle distance events, Indian men swept the medals with a 1-2 finish in 1500 and 3000.

Sandeep Karan won men’s 1500 with 3:51.32 while youngster Naresh Yadav finished second in 3:51.61. Kashinath Aswale, recovering from a back injury, came up with a winning performance of 8:09.92 in 3000 race while teammate Ajay Kumar Patel ended a close second with 8:09.97.

In men’s triple jump, Renjith Maheshwary could not repeat his 2007 gold-winning performance and finished second with a jump of 16.53m.

Satyender Singh continued his winning form with a throw of 18.42m in the men’s shotput while compatriot Om Prakash took third place by hurling the iron ball to 17.77m. K.M. Binu, semi finalist at the Athens Olympics, came third in men’s 400m with a timing of 47.36.