Javelin thrower Annu Rani, and long-distance runner Parul Chaudhary won a gold each as Indian athletes hogged the limelight in the track and field meet in the Asian Games at Hangzhou China on Tuesday.
Besides the two Gold, Indian track and field stars also bagged Two Silver and an equal number of bronzes.
Annu earned the yellow medal in the women’s javelin throw with a season-best of 62.92m in her fourth attempt. Nadeesha Dilhan of Sri Lanka won the silver.
Earlier Parul Chaudhary clocked 15:14.75 in the women’s 5000m final, taking home a dramatic gold medal. The 28-year-old Indian who won 5000m silver at the Asian Championships earlier this year, overtook Japan’s Ririka Hironaka on the final straight to upgrade to the top step of the podium. Parul’s team mate Ankita, finished fifth with a personal best time of 15:33.03.
It is Parul Chaudhary’s second medal of the 19th Asian Games, following her women’s 3000m steeplechase silver on Monday.
Tejaswin Shankar won a silver with a National Record of 7666 points in decathlon after placing fourth in the 1500m. The last men’s decathlon medal in Asian Games was in 1974 by Vijay Singh Chauhan. Previously, Bharatinder Singh held the National Record of 7,658 points.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath, won the 800m silver medal with a time of 1:48.43, His compatriot Rishnan Kumar finished fifth with a time of 1:48.80. The 27-year-old Afsal had finished seventh in the Asian Championships earlier this year, where he clocked 1:48.77.
Praveen Chithravel added one more medal to the team’s kitty as he won a bronze medal in the triple jump as he ran through his sixth attempt and managed to secure the third spot with his first jump of 16.68m. His compatriot Abdulla Aboobacker finished fourth with a best attempt of 16.62 metres.
The 22-year-old Praveen had finished fifth and sixth in his two Diamond League appearances this season.
In women’s 400m Hurdles, Vithya Ramraj clocked 55.68 seconds to win the bronze medal. The 25-year-old Indian hurdler equalled track and field legend PT Usha’s 400m hurdles national record in the heats on Monday.
In the women’s high jump, the 16-year-old Pooja finished fifth with a best leap of 1.80m. Rubina Yadav jumped a best of 1.75m, ranking ninth at Hangzhou 2023.
Bahrain’s hurdler Adekoya Oluwakemi Mujidat shattered the Asian Games record, clocking 54.45 seconds, on her way to clinching the gold medal. Mo Jiadie from China won the silver medal with a season-best time of 55.01 seconds.
Yashas Palaksha and T Santosh Kumar, on the other hand, finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the men’s 400m hurdles final. Palaksha clocked 49.39s, while Tamilarasan managed 49.41s. Qatar’s Abderrahman Alsaleck and Bassem Hemeida secured a gold-silver finish while China’s Xie Zhiyu bagged bronze.
Meanwhile, there was sad news from the Pakistani camp. Their star javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has pulled out of the competition due to injury, so there will be no expected high-voltage rivalry between defending champion Neeraj Chopra and the Pakistani thrower.
Nadeem has a season-best throw of 87.82 m and was Neeraj Chopra’s closest competitor in the javelin. Neeraj has a season-best of 88.77m.
He was touted to be Neeraj Chopra’s main rival and looked all set to participate in the Javelin throw finals on Wednesday. However, a last-minute MRI scan revealed that the athlete had been carrying a knee injury.
