But here in Bangkok on the second day of the athletics programme, Indians, who usually return with a string of fourth places from Asian events, sneaked into the medals, event after event. Of the seven finals that India figured in, there were medals in six and one of them provided two. One gold, one silver and five bronze besides two fourth places -- Rosa Kutty in 400m for women and Bahadur Singh in men's shot put. But ironically in both events, India did have a medal.

Ironically, it was PT Usha, arguably the greatest athlete India, who struggled in sixth place, was the lowest Indians went this evening.

With GurmeetKaur hurling in an unexpected -- for all barring herself and her husband, Yadvinder, also her coach -- bronze with a near life-best of 59.00 metres, the trend for the day had been set.

Jyotirmoy Sikdar took it too the highest logical points beating two Chinese on way to ever Asian Games medal and the gold coming after two fourth places in 1994 was all the more sweeter. Shakti Singh, who arrived late into Bangkok raised a few eyebrows over his physical condition and there was a question mark against him as Indian throwers who often achieve great distances at home but fail miserably abroad. Shakti was still way off his best of 19.73m achieved last month, but his 18.81m -- the farthest any Indian shot putter has gone outside of India -- fetched him a silver.

And then there was a spate of bronze led by Paramjeet Singh, who crowned a brilliant year in which he shattered an age-old national record by landing a medal in a star-studded field in the men's 400m. Sunita Rani, just 19, who is showing enough potentialto develop into a great future prospect, landed a bronze in women's 1,500m as the Chinese were stunned this evening.

Rachita Mistry made light of a horrible start and ran a brilliant second 50 to improve upon her fifth place of four years ago by grabbing the bronze in a race that made waves even before it was run. Susantika Jayasinghe's late pull out raised many questions, but for Rachita it may have been just the break she needed at this time of her career, which could take off with a bronze medal at the Asian Games. At 11.41s she ran her life best, though the wind speed at 2.3 metres per second was slightly above the legal limit.

And finally there was the veteran Bahadur Prasad, who has often lamented his lack of success at the Asian Games. After two failures in 1990 and 1994 he may well have given up because of a series of injuries over the past few seasons. But with a last-ditch effort in what will be his last Asian Games, he ran a brave race moving ahead early and staying on to beat a normallyfast-finisher like the 17-year-old Kiyoharu Sato of Japan and Beng Chen of China who in the last lap faded away into the ninth place.

Faux pas over anthem

Indian joy of finally striking a gold through Jyotirmoy dimmed a bit when the organisers at the Thammasat Stadium made a hash by playing an unidentified tune instead of the national anthem.

With the Indians in the stadium shouting, the organisers finally realised their folly and played the Indian National Anthem and apologised for the gaffe over the public address system.

Five minutes later, the medal presentation ceremony was held once again and the Indian anthem played for the second time to make up for the faux pas.