BUSAN, Oct 10: India enjoyed the limelight at the Asian Games here Thursday, with their athletes striking three golds on the track.

Having taken a back seat to the superpowers of Asian sport throughout the games, India’s athletes emphatically stamped their mark on several sports on day 12.

India’s gold rush started early on when sprinter Saraswati Saha took full advantage of the sudden withdrawal of Sri Lankan favourite Susanthika Jayasinghe to win the 200m.

Saha, competing at her first Asian Games, came home in a modest 23.28secs in front of the largest crowd seen at the athletics so far.

The tiny Indian put on a devastating spurt of speed over the final 50m to leave Ni Xiaoli of China trailing in second and Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Kovyreva in third.

“Susanthika is very strong and it would have been good to go against her,” said Saha, 23, who was also carrying a slight hamstring injury.

“I came here to beat her so it is disappointing that she didn’t race but I expected gold whether she had been here or not. This is the biggest win of my career.”

Saha’s win was followed later in the morning by gold for Sunita Rani in the 1,500m. Rani set a new Asian Games record of 4min 06.03sec with Tatiana Borisova back in second place, and Yoshiko Ichikawa of Japan third.

Another Games record fell to India later when Neelam Jaswant Singh hurled her discus 64.55m to claim gold.

Indian athletes have excelled themselves in Busan where they expected to win four track and field gold medals and have so far won six.

Coach Renu Kohli said government incentives — $40,000 is on offer for each gold medal winner - were one reason behind the success.

“The financial rewards for winning gold are a big incentive but the real secret of India’s success here is simple — hard work.

“Our success here is not surprising to us. We have expected it 100 percent.”—AFP