Vikas gowda celebrates his win at Hampden Park ,Glasgow

Vikas Gowda gave its first athletics gold medal of the 20th Commonwealth Games by winning the men’s discuss throw event, in Glasgow on Thursday.

The 31-year-old US-based Indian pocketed the gold with an effort of 63.64m, way below his personal best effort of 66.28m, under incessant rain at the Hampden Park.

The silver went to Apostolos Parellis of Cyprus who threw the discuss to 63.32m, while the bronze was bagged by Jason Morgan of Jamaica with an effort of 62.34m.

2010 Delhi Games gold medaliist Benn Harradine of Australia finished fourth with a below-par effort of 61.91m.

The incessant rain did not help the athletes’ cause in any way as the throwers failed difficulty in gripping the discuss and were continuously seen rubbing the discuss with a towel.

Gowda, who won a silver in the 2010 Delhi Games, registered his best effort in his third attempt, which proved to be enough for him to ran away with the yellow metal.

But the 63.64m effort was way below his personal best as well as his season’s best effort of 65.62m.

Incidentally, Gowda’s gold is the third for India on the eight day of the competition today after Babaita Kumari and London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt clinched two yellow metals in wrestling.

Meanwhile, India’s Tintu Luka failed to qualify for the finals of the women’s 800m race after finishing seventh in the eight-contestant first semifinal.

Luka could only manage a timing of 2:03.35s to finish on the pentultimate position in her semifinal round.