Guangzhou: A below-par Krishna Poonia and G G Pramila won a bronze each in women's discus throw and heptathlon respectively to save India from ending the third day in track and field competitions without a medal in the Asian Games here on Tuesday.
Indian had begun their track and field campaign in spectacular fashion winning two gold and a silver on Sunday but that was followed by a lull on Monday.
With Tuesday's bronze medals, the Indian athletes have so far won two gold, a silver and two bronze.
Poonia, who had won a bronze in Doha Asian Games four years ago as well as gold in last month's Commonwealth Games, was expected to win at least a medal going by the past performances of the seven throwers in the field and it was just a question of the colour of the medal.
The expected three-way contest among Poonia, Doha Asian Games gold medallist Song Aimin of China and another Chinese Li Yangfeng, however, turned out to be a two-way affair as Poonia could not improve upon her 61.94m which she achieved in her first attempt.
Poonia's throw on Tuesday was more than her CWG gold-winning 61.51m effort but well below her personal best as well as season's best of 63.69m.
Season's leader and VTB Bank Continental Cup winner, Yangfeng hurled 66.18m, a tad below her personal best of 66.40m, in her second attempt to win the gold.
Aimin was trailing Poonia before clearing her silver-winning 64.04m, her season's best but lower than her personal best of of 65.44m, in her fourth attempt.
Another Indian in the fray, Harwant Kaur, who had won a silver in the CWG, was a distant fourth with a disappointing 57.55m effort.
Meanwhile, the other Indian bronze winner of the day, Pramila finished third with 5415 points in the seven-event heptathlon competition.
The gold and the silver in this event went to Yulia Tarasova of Uzbekistan and Yuki Nakata of Japan, who scored 5783 and 5606 points respectively.
Another Indian in the fray, Sushmita Singha Roy finished fourth with 5051 points.
Pramila was second in shot put, 200m race, long jump and javelin while finishing third in 100m hurdles, fourth in high jump and fifth in 800m.
The two Indians in the women's long jump-- Mayookha Johny and M A Prajusha - came a cropper, finishing seventh and ninth out of 14 finalists.
Mayookha jumped 6.33m, which she cleared in her first attempt, much below her 6.64m, which is the season's second leading effort in Asia and which she cleared in New Delhi Asian All Stars Meet in July.
Prajusha, who had won a silver in the Commonwealth Games in the same event, could clear only a dismal 6.11m, well below her CWG effort of 6.47m.
Jung Soo Nok of South Korea was the surprise winner with a jump of 6.53m as she pushed Doha Asian Games bronze medallist Olga Rypakova (6.50m) of Kazakhstan and season's leader Yulia Tarasova (6.49m) of Uzbekistan to second and third position respectively.
National record holder Hari Shankar Roy also finished a disappointing last in men's high jump among 12 competitors after failing to clear 2.15m.
Roy, whose national record stands at 2.25m, could only clear 2.10m in his third attempt.
Season's leader Essa Mutaz Barshim of Qatar won the gold with a leap of 2.27m, a tad below his 2.31m effort in Hanoi in July.
Japanese Takahari Hiromi won the silver with an effort of 2.23m while Rashid Ahmed Al Mannai, who won the VTB Continental Cup in September, bagged the bronze with 2.19m.
In women's 1500m final, Jhuma Khatun and O P Jaisha finished fifth and seven with below-par timings of 4:13.46 and 4:19.62 respectively.
Bahrain's world champion and Doha Asian Games gold medallist Jamal Maryam Yusuf won the race in 4:08.22, though much below her personal best of 3:56.18 and season's best of 3:58.93.
Vietnam's Thanh Hang Truong won the silver in personal best timing of 4:09.58 while the bronze went to Mimi Belete Gebregeiorges of Bahrain (4:10.42).
In men's 1500m final, Sandeep Karan Singh ran his personal best of 3:42.79 to finish sixth, ahead of Chatholi Hamza (3:44.25) who ended at seventh spot.
Shaween Mohammed of Saudi Arabia won the gold with a timing of 3:36.49. Sajad Moradi of Iran won the silver in personal best effort of 3:37.09 while Ali Belal Mansoor (3:38.39) bagged the bronze.
Elam Singh could not emulate his women counterpart Sudha Singh's gold-winning effort as he finished sixth in men's 3000m steeplechase by clocking 8:47.34.
Defending champion Taher Tareq Mubarak (8:25.89) of Bahrain won the gold while the silver and bronze went to Qatar'a Ali Thamer Kamal (8:26.27) and Alamri Ali Ahmad (8:30.96) of Saudi Arabia.
On a good note, Indians qualified for the finals in both men's and women's 4X100m relay races by finishing second and third respectively in their respective heats.
Indian men's quartet of G Nagaraj, Ritesh Anand, Shameer Mon and Mohammed Abdul Najeeb finished second with a timing of 39.62s behind Chinese Taipei (39.34s).
The women's quartet of Satti Geetha, Nanda Srabani, P K Priya and H M Jyothi finished third clocking 45.44s behind Thailand (44.42) and Vietnam (45.12) in the heats.
India also qualified for the men's 4X400m relay race finals after finishing second behind Japan.
The Indian quartet of Jithin Paul, V B Bineesh, Jayakumar Premanand and Shake Mortaja clocked 3:07.00s while the Japanese timed 3:06.53s.
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