It turned out to be a silver day for India as Ancy Sojan Edappilly, steeple chaser Parul Chaudhary and 4x400m mixed team bagged a silver medal in the track and field events of the Asian Games at Hangzhou on Monday.
Priti Lamba, earned a bronze medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase final, making it an Indian double podium
Ancy leapt a personal best of 6.63m in the fifth attempt to claim the women’s long jump silver medal on her Asian Games debut at Hangzhou. The 22-year-old Indian had missed out on an Asian Championships medal this year after a fourth-placed finish. Shaili Singh, on the other hand, finished fifth as she couldn’t follow up her Asian Championships silver with a medal at the Asian Games.
Earlier Parul Chaudhary clocked 9:27.63 in the women’s 3000m steeplechase final, to win the silver medal. A reigning Asian Championship gold medallist, Parul bagged her first Asian Games medal. Parul’s compatriot Priti Lamba, meanwhile, settled for a bronze medal with a personal best time of 9:43.32 in the women’s 3000m steeplechase final, She had finished fourth in the event at the Asian Championships earlier this year. Bahrain’s Yavi Winfred Mutile won the gold medal with an Asian Games record time of 9:18.28.
The 28-year-old Parul Chaudhary holds the national record with a timing of 9:15.31, achieved at the World Athletics Championships 2023 in Budapest.
Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Vithya Ramraj, Rajesh Ramesh and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3:14.34 in the 4x400m mixed team relay and bagged the silver medal too. The Indian quartet had initially finished the race third, but the second-placed Sri Lankan team were disqualified for a lane infringement, resulting in a medal upgrade for Team India.
In women’s 400m Hurdles, Vithya Ramraj finished her heat at the top spot with a personal best of 55.42, beating her earlier mark of 55.43, She equaled PT Usha’s national record set in 1984. and directly qualifed for the final with Bahrain’s Aminat OY Jamal from Heat 1.
India Olympic association President PT Usha was in stands to watch her 39-year-old record being equaled by Ramraj
Meanwhile in Decathlon 400m,Tejaswin Shankar finished in 49.67s and earns 830 points from the race in the Decathlon to extend his lead at the top of the field. He moves to 4260 points, a 250-point lead!
Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan made the 400m hurdles final with a 49.28 finish. Qatari athlete Abderrahman Alsaleck (49.12) is the other direct qualifier.
Mohammed Afsal P (1:46.79) finishes top in the second heat of 800m to earn direct qualification for the final. Kuwait’s Ebrahim Alzofairi (1:47.01) is the other direct qualifier, .while Krishan Kumar timed 1:49.45 to earn a ‘Q’ from Heat 3 alongside Qatar’s Abdirahman Hassan (1:49.32).
Sprinter Amlan Borgohain, a 100m and 200m national record holder, clocked 20.98 seconds and finished sixth in the 200m final Japan’s Koki Ueyama,
an Asian Championships bronze medalist, upgraded to gold with a time of 20.60 at Hangzhou. Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Abdullah Abkar and Chinese Taipei’s Yang Chun-Han bagged silver and bronze, respectively.
In the women’s pole vault final, the 21-year-old Pavithra Vengatesh could only clear the 4.00m mark, ranking sixth on her Asian Games debut.