Mixed 4x400m relay team combined well for India’s only gold medal of the day with a new national record while long Jumper Murali Sresshankar won the silver medal and in the process, qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics. at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok on Saturday.

The mixed 4 x 400 m relay team of Rajesh Ramesh, Aishwarya Kailash Mishra, Amoj Jacob and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3:14.70 to ward off silver medalists Sri Lanka (3:15.41) and bronze medalists Japan (3:15.71).

The Indian quartet broke the previous national record (3:15.71) in the mixed 4x400m relay, set by Muhammed Anas, MR Poovamma, Hima Das and Arokia Rajiv at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

Anil Sarvesh Kushare and Swapna Barman settled for silver medals in the men’s high jump and women’s-only heptathlon events, respectively, while Tamilarasan Santhosh Kumar logged a new season’s best timing to bag a bronze in the 400m on the fourth day of the Championships hurdles race.

With the addition of the five medals – one gold, three silver and one bronze – India’s total medals tally at the championship currently stands at 14 medals – six gold, four silver and four bronze.

Murali managed an 8.37m jump – just 0.4m short of his personal best logged in Bhubaneswar last month – with his final attempt of the day but failed to pip Chinese Taipei’s Yu Tang-Lin’s 8.40m attempt, which took the gold.

Though Murali Sreeshankar’s final attempt fell short of the gold medal in Bangkok, it was well above the long jump entry standard of 8.27m for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The long jump competition turned out to be a battle between Lin and Sreeshankar from the start with both athletes setting the tone with identical 8.10m efforts with their opening jumps.

Sreeshankar sneaked into the lead with an 8.12m jump with his third try but Lin, the reigning Asian Indoor long jump champion, came up with a mammoth 8.40m, a new championship record, with his fourth attempt.

Needing to match his personal best for a sight of the gold, Sreeshankar, a silver medalist from the 2022 Commonwealth Games came agonizingly close with his 8.37m final effort. China’s Zhang Mingkun secured the bronze with 8.08m.

Saudi Arabia’s Hussein Taher Al-Sabee was the previous meet record holder, courtesy an 8.33m jump which won him the gold in Jakarta 2000.

In the high jump competition, Anil Sarvesh Kushare clinched the silver medal with a 2.26m clearance. The Indian failed to match his personal best of 2.28m and bowed out from gold medal contention.

Korea’s Woo Sang-hyeok, a silver medal winner in the 2022 world championships and 2018 Asian Games, won the gold, clearing 2.28m.Thailand’s Tawan Kaeodam completed the podium.

Tejaswin Shankar, who holds the national record in high jump (2.29m), finished seventh after failing to clear 2.15m. The Indian won the bronze in the decathlon competition in Bangkok earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Swapna Barman, the reigning Asian Games heptathlon champion, had to settle for a silver medal in Bangkok. She tallied 5,840 points from the six events to finish behind Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Voronina, who clinched the gold with 6,098 points. The bronze went to Japan’s Yuki Yamasaki (5,696 points).

Swapna was the gold medalist in heptathlon at the 2017 Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar but was beaten to the top podium at Doha 2019 by Voronina.

Tamilarasan Santhosh Kumar clinched a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles event, clocking a season’s best 49.09s. Qatar’s Mohamed Hemeida Bassem won the race with a personal best of 48.64s while the silver medal went to Japan’s Kodama Yusaku (48.96s).

Yashash Palaksha, who competed in the heats, did not start (DNS) in the final.