In the women’s 3000m race, Indian runners claimed the first two spots—with Preeja Sreedharan won the gold in the women’s 3000m event, clocking 9:12.26, while teammate Kavita Raut finished in 9:26.10 for the silver. But it was C Hamza’s silver winning performance in 3:41.18 that stood out. He actually ran the race of his life to clinch the second place behind Thamer Ali from Qatar who won it in 3:40.86.

C Hamza, the winner of a bronze in the World Military Games in Hyderabad last October, also achieved the qualification time of 3:43 to gain entry into the World Indoors to be held in Valencia from March 7 to 9. He is the second Indian to do so. On the opening day yesterday, Sinimol Paulose had qualified for Valencia.

Triple jumper Amarjeet Singh claimed a silver with a jump of 16.26m while the gold went to Roman Valiyey. The Kazakhstan measured a jump of 16.32 metres.

In the women’s quarter-mile event, Mandeep Kaur’s efforts of 54.28 seconds fetched her the bronze. In the same race, India’s top runner Manjeet Kaur finished a poor fifth in 56.20. Bharain’s Ruqaya Alghasara came first in 53.28.