India expects five athletics
golds at the Asiad

India is expecting a haul of 18 medals, including five gold, from athletics at the coming Busan Asian Games, manager of the athletics squad B N Lahiri said in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Lahiri said women's middle distance runner K M Beenamol is a bright prospect to win gold medals in the 400 metres and 800 metres, while Bengal's Saraswati Saha is expected to bag the yellow metal in the 200 metres.

Speaking at a meet-the-press programme, Lahiri rated the women's 4 x 400 metres relay team and shot putter Shakti Singh as the other favourites to win the gold.

"The squad has undergone rigorous training for the last two years at Patiala. So we are highly optimistic of the side bettering its performance from last time around," he added.

India had won two gold in a total of 15 medals in athletics at the last edition of the Games in Bangkok.

The Busan-bound 64-member team includes 43 athletes and 21 officials including two Russian coaches -- Yuri Ogorodnik and Yuri Minakov -- three masseurs and one doctor.

The Amateur Athletic Federation of India is also hopeful about discus thrower Anil Kumar, now training in Hungary, of putting up a good performance.

Lahiri, who is also the AAFI treasurer, said all the athletes have been dope-tested in Delhi ahead of their departure for Busan. To raise the level of consciousness among the athletes, each of the 15 individual coaches had been provided a printed booklet of do's and don't's to be followed before the events.

"There have been instances where an athlete has been pulled up for doping for taking cough syrup, so the booklet lists the names of the drugs as also their clinical names which the player should keep away from," he said.

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