Sudha Singh of India and Yuan Jin of China clear a hurdle during the 3,000m steeplechase final, in Guangzhou, on Sunday. (Getty Images)

Guangzhou: India opened its athletics campaign in the Asian Games in a spectacular fashion with long distance runners Preeja Sreedharan and Sudha Singh clinching gold medals in the women’s 10,000m and 3000m steeplechase, at the Aoti Main Stadium, here, Sunday.

Adding to their joy, Kavita Raut secured the silver medal behind Preeja in the the 10,000m race.

Preeja (28) and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kavita ran a tactical race by staying back of the pack before making the final effort to put back the bunch of nine other runners and cross the finish line with personal best timings.

Preeja clocked 31 minutes, 50.47 seconds, a good two minutes below the Asian and world record of China’s Wang Junxia but better than her 32:04s set two years ago at the London Olympic Games qualifying meet.

“I feel very proud to have won the gold medal after missing out on a medal in the Commonwealth Games. I was determined to do well in the Asian Games,” said Preeja.

“I am also happy for Kavita for bagging the silver,” she added. She was so excited with her win that she could not describe how she overtook the rest of the field at the end.

“I don’t know. I just ran, that’s all,” she said.

She also credited the Indian government and her coaches for the victory. “I lost my father at a very young age and my mother brought us up. I have a brother and sister. She worked in others’ houses to run the family,” said Preeja. “I also give credit to the government for the money it spent on our month-long training. I also want to give credit to my coach Nikolai Snesarov of Belarus and the Sports Authority of India.”

Kavita, who clocked her personal best of 31:51.44, thanked her coaches and the government.

“I’m very happy. I got a medal in CWG and in the Asian Games too. I thank the government, the coaches and ONGC,” said the 25-year-old Kavita.

The bronze in this event went to S Habtegebrel of Bahrain while Japan’s Kayoko Fukushi, who set the early pace, and Hikari Yoshimoto finished fourth and fifth respectively.

To bring more cheers to the Indian camp was the thrilling victory of Sudha in the day’s final event — the 3000m women’s steeplechase — which had only six participants. She also set a national record in her effort.

The two Indians in the fray —eventual gold medallist Sudha and OP Jaisha, who ended up fifth, — were abreast of the others in the bunch with Sudha setting the pace after 2000m.

24-year-old Sudha made the decisive kick on the back stretch of the final lap and was in fact leading her nearest rival, eventual silver medal winner Jin Yuan of China, comfortably after the last water jump by ten metres before the host nation’s athlete accelerated to close the gap.

Sudha, who was flagging towards the end, saw the Chinese athlete closing down the gap and made one determined effort in the final few metres to put her leg just in front of the Yuan for the gold with a personal best timing of 9 minutes and 55.67 seconds.

Yuan secured the silver clocking 9:55.71 while the bronze went to Japan’s Minori Hayakari (10.01.25).

“I never expected to win the gold medal. The Chinese girl gave me a tough fight in the end and I am happy to win the medal,” Sudha said later at the press conference.

“I am happy to have improved my timing. At the CWG I had clocked 9:57.63 and set a national record,” she said.

Earlier in the day, India’s campaign in the blue riband discipline of athletics started on mixed note with high jumper Hari Sankar Roy making it to the final after men's 20km walkers Harminder Singh and Baljinder Singh finished outside the medal bracket.

(PTI)