Incheon, Sep 30 (IANS): Discus thrower Vikas Gowda won the silver while the quartermilers kept alive India's Asian Games medal hopes at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium here Tuesday.
Gowda, the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, was favourite to win the gold medal but had to be satisfied with the silver with a throw of 62.58 metres in his second attempt. Gowda had hurled the discus to 63.64m to win the gold in Glasgow. Gowda's Incheon show was also below his bronze-medal winning mark of 63.13m at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
The US-based Gowda took the lead among 14 competitors after the first throw but was overtaken after the second throw by gold-medal winner Ehsan Hadadi of Iran, who claimed the yellow metal with 65.11m. This was Hadadi's third straight Games gold after throwing 63.79m in 2006 Doha and 67.99m in 2010 Guangzhou. Qatar's Mohammed Ahmed Dheeb clinched bronze with a best throw of 61.25m in his final attempt.
The 31-year-old Mysore-born Gowda managed 59.52m in his first attempt before achieving 62.58m in his second and 60.77m in his third throw. However, his last three attempts were disqualified.
In the men's 110m hurdles, Siddhanth Thingalaya finished a disappointing sixth clocking 13.73 seconds. China's Wenjun Xie (13.36 secs) clinched the gold medal while South Korean Byoungjun Kim (13.43 secs) and Thai Jamras Rittidet (13.61 secs) took the silver and bronze respectively. Both Kim and Rittidet registered their personal best timings.
Among the quartermilers, defending champion Ashwini Akkunji made it to the final of the women's 400m hurdles with a timing of 57.67 seconds in the round one, heat one, where a Games Record of 55.09 secs was set by Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya. Jithin Paul made it to the men's 400m hurdles.
Tintu Luka, bronze medallist in 2010, and Sushma Devi also qualified for the women's 800m final while Sajeeh Joseph made it to the men's final.