World No 8 Anju Bobby George expectedly bagged the gold medal in the women's long jump at the South Asian Games in Colombo, but the medal brought her little joy as she was way below her personal best of 6.83 metres.
A clearance of 6.42m in the third attempt proved good enough for her to clinch the gold, but then the rest of the field was little to write home about, a fact not lost on the Indian ace as was evident in her muted reaction to the victory.
"I am certainly not happy with my performance," she told reporters immediately after her event.
"I am competing for the first time since May," was all that she had to say after the disappointing show.
Anju, one of the very few high-profile athletes in the fray at the Games, was banking on a good performance to book a ticket to the Athletics World Cup in Greece next month, but her hopes now are in tatters.
The quadrennial extravaganza features continental teams competing in various events.
The best performer from their respective discipline gets to represent the continent in the elite event, and Anju's performance at the Sugathadasa stadium on Friday falls well below 6.86m, achieved by Japan's Kumiko Ikeda.
Anju, who won a bronze medal at World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003, is making a comeback to the international stage after sustaining a heel injury earlier this year.
August 26 is the cut-off date to select the team from Asia for the Athens event.
The silver medal went to Huda Foujia of Bangladesh, who cleared 6.07m, while local girl N C Priyadarshini clinched the bronze with an effort of 5.94m.
Incidentally, Anju's gold-winning effort was a new Games record, improving upon the one set by India's G Premila, who cleared 6.37m at Kathmandu in 1999.
In the other track and field events, India, who have fielded mainly their second string athletes, won gold medals through Anuradha Biswal in the 100m hurdles and Saurabh Vij in shot put.
Biswal clocked 14.28 seconds to finish atop the podium while Sumita Rani of Bangladesh settled for the silver in 14.36s. India's Poonam Bojanna finished third, clocking 14.61s.
In the 100m men's hurdles, Mohd Mafuzur Rahman won only the second gold for Bangladesh while the silver and bronze were won by Pakistan's Muhammad Sajjad (14.26) and Abdul Rashid (14.62).
Saurabh hurled the iron ball to 17.43 metres to finish first while compatriot Kuldeep Maan picked the silver with a throw of 16.75m. Ashraf Ali of Pakistan bagged the bronze medal with an effort of 16.63 metres.
The women's high jump event saw Sri Lanka rule the roost, Dulanjalee Ranasingha bagging the gold with a leap of 1.73 metres and Taranga Vinodani picking the silver with a clearance of 1.68m. India's Tessymol Joseph got the bronze.
It was again a Sri Lankan who won the gold in women's discus throw, BLPN Wijesundara hurling the disc to 47.50m.
India won the silver and the bronze through Saroj Sihag (45.67m) and Priyanka Bhanot (43.29) respectively.
The 400m men's hurdles was won by Pakistan's Allah Ditta with a timing of 51 seconds. Sri Lanka's Asoka Jayasundara bagged the silver (51.02) and India's Joseph Abraham picked the bronze (51.66).
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