Reigning champion Imranur Rahman failed to defend his gold medal in the 60m sprint event in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships after finishing fourth in the seven-sprinter final in Tehran on Monday. 

Imranur clocked at 6.67 seconds and missed out on a medal.

Ali Anwar of Oman and Japan's Shuhei Tada, who were tipped as favourites in the final due to their semifinal timings, expectedly won gold and silver clocking in at 6.52 and 6.56 seconds respectively.

Imranur, who had a semifinal time of 6.60 seconds, narrowly missed out on bronze to Jo Kum Ryong of North Korea, who claimed third position with a timing of 6.66 seconds, 0.01 seconds fewer than Imranur.

Before leaving for Tehran, Imranur had expressed the uncertainty over his gold defence with the influx of new, unknown sprinters but vowed to give it his all.

However, Imranur's apprehension came true when he finished behind Ali Anwar twice in Heat and semifinals and finally lagged to finish fourth in the final of the competition which left Bangladesh with the satisfaction of winning only a silver medal earned by Zahir Rayhan in the 400m run yesterday..