It rained medals for India as they won 13 of them on the final day of the Asian Athletics Championship to end their campaign with 27 – six gold, 12 silver and nine bronze- In Bangkok on Sunday evening
For India who overall finished third, this was their joint-highest tally at the Asian championships alongside Bhubaneswar 2017 where they had won nine gold, six silver and 12 bronze.
Japan topped the leaderboard with 37 medals-16 Gold,11 Silver,10 Bronze, China with 22 medals-8 Gold,8 Silver and six bronze was placed second.
Jyothi Yarraji, who won the women’s 100m hurdles gold earlier, earned her second medal a silver in the 200m finals. She timed a personal best of 23.13s to finish just behind Singapore’s Veronica Shanti Pereira, who claimed the gold with 22.70 – a new championship record. China’s Li Yuting (23.25) won bronze.
Javelin thrower DP Manu earned India a silver medal in this event as he logged 81.01m with his final throw to upgrade himself from a bronze to silver.
Japan Roderik Genki Dean (83.15m) walked away with the gold while Yasir Muhammad, representing Pakistan in the absence of the injured Arshad Nadeem, pocketed the bronze with a
79.93m throw.
Women’s shot putters also added two medals to India’s overall tally with Abha Khatua (18.06m) and Manpreet Kaur (17.00m) claiming the silver and bronze, respectively. China’s Song Jiayuan came up with 18.88m to claim the top podium.
Interestingly, Abha Khatua’s mark here saw her equal Manpreet’s national record, which was logged at the 2022 inter-state championships in Chennai. Abha’s previous personal best was a distant 17.13m, which came in March last year.
In the 800m, India managed silver medals in both the men’s and women’s categories. Krishan Kumar clocked a season’s best 1:45.88 to finish behind Qatar’s Abubaker Haydar Abdalla (1:45.53). Kuwait’s Ebrahim Alzofairi (1:46.11) completed the podium. Mohammed Afsal, the second Indian in the eight-man field, finished in seventh place with 1:48.77.
While Lavika Sharma did not finish the women’s 800m, her compatriot Chanda secured a silver with 2:01.58. It took a new championship record timing of 2:00.66 by Sri Lanka’s Tharushi Karunarathna Dissanayaka to keep the Indian athlete from getting her hands on the gold.Another Lankan runner, Gayanthika Artigala (2:03.25) came in third.
The women’s 5000m race yielded two medals for India with Parul Chaudhary, who had earlier won gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, taking the silver with a 15:52.35 run and Ankita (16:03.33) taking the bronze. The gold in Bangkok went to Japan’s Yuma Yamamoto (15:51.16). Parul had reset the Indian national record in the 5000m with a 15:10.35 earlier this year in the USA.
Gulveer Singh finished with a bronze medal in the men’s 5000m race, clocking 13:48.33 to come in behind Japanese duo Endo Hyuga (13:34.94) and Kazuya Shiojiri (13:43.92). Abhishek Pal (15:00.03) finished a disappointing 14th.
The women’s 4x400m relay team featuring Rezoana Mallick Heena, Aishwarya Mishra, Jyothika Sri Dandi and anchor Subha Venkatesan clocked 3:33.73 to win bronze behind Vietnam (3:32.36) and Sri Lanka (3:33.27).
In the final event of the competition, the men’s 4x400m relay team, featuring Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal, Mijo Chacko Kurian and Rajesh Ramesh, grabbed another silver medal.
Their time of 3:01.80 was only second to Sri Lanka’s 3:01.56 – a new meet record. The bronze went to the Qatari team.
Race walkers struck two medals to start the day. Vikash Singh clinched a bronze in the 20km race walk, clocking 1:29:32. Japan’s Yutaro Murayama (1:24:40) and China’s
Wang Kaihua (1:25:29) finished ahead of the Indian. Akshdeep Singh was disqualified.
In the women’s section Priyanka Goswami finish with the silver medal with a time of 1:34:24. Yang Liujing of China claimed gold with 1:32:37 while the bronze went to Japan’s Yukiko
Umeno (1:36:17). Bhawna Jat, came in fifth with 1:38:26