Bangkok: Abha Khatua sprung a surprise in the women’s shot put event on the final day of the Asian Athletics Championships here on Sunday by equaling the national record of 18.06m to claim a silver medal while Jyoti Yaraji and Parul Chowdhary won their second medals of the competition. India finished third in the competition with 27 medals.
India won a total of 27 medals, including six gold, 12 silver, and nine bronze, and equaled its record for the most medals in the continental competition. India won the same number of medals in the 2017 competition at home in Bhubaneswar. This time though the number of gold medals is less. India topped the medal tally in 2017 with nine gold, six silver, and 12 bronze medals.
India won a total of 13 medals including eight silver and five bronze medals on the final day of the competition but could not win a single gold medal. Abha improved her previous personal best performance of 17.13 m by almost one meter (93 cm) to throw the four kg shot put to a distance of 18.06 m in her fourth attempt. Abha’s second-best effort was 17.10m. China’s Song Jiayuan (18.88m) won the gold medal in this event.
Abha equaled the national record set by veteran Manpreet Kaur, who on Sunday managed a 17m effort to win the bronze medal. Abha said in an online conversation with the media, “I changed my technique this year. I did it by gliding to rotation. In the beginning, there was a problem in understanding the rotation technique very well. As I picked up speed, my performance improved.
On Thursday, Jyoti, who became the first Indian to win gold in 100m hurdles at the Asian Championships, also won a silver in 200m with a personal best timing of 23.13s. Singapore’s Shanti Perera finished second in the event with a timing of 22.70 seconds.
Earlier, Jyoti’s personal best performance was 23.29 seconds, which she did in the semi-finals. He had won the gold medal in the Federation Cup in May with a timing of 23.42 seconds. Long distance ace Parul Chowdhary also won her second medal with a silver in the 5000m race. Parul, who had won gold in the 3000m steeplechase on Friday, settled for silver in 5000m with a timing of 15:52.35.
Japan’s Yuma Yamamoto topped the event with a time of 15:51.16. Parul holds the national record of 15 minutes 10.35 seconds in the 5000 meters event. Ankita won the bronze medal in the same event with a timing of 16 minutes and 3.33 seconds. Gulveer Singh managed to win the bronze medal in the men’s 5000 meters with a timing of 13:48.33. In the men’s javelin throw, DP Manu won the silver with an effort of 81.01m. In the current season, Manu is the best performer among Asian javelin throwers after Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra.
His best effort in the current season has been 84.33m. Here, however, he was able to take the javelin more than 80 meters in his last attempt. His other attempts were 78.22m, 79.83m, 78.78m, and 75.35m with one foul. Roderick Genki of Japan won the gold medal with an effort of 83.15m. In the men’s 4x400m relay, the team of Amoj Jacob, Mohammad Ajmal, Mizo Kurian Chacko, and Rajesh Ramesh finished second with a timing of 3:1.80 seconds and won the silver medal. The Sri Lankan team won the gold medal with a timing of 3:1.56.
The team of Rejoana Malik Heena, Aishwarya Mishra, Jyoti Dandi, and Subha Venkatesan won the bronze medal in the women’s 4x400m relay with a timing of 3:33.73. Vietnam won the gold with a timing of 3:32.36 while Sri Lanka won the silver with a timing of 3:33.27. Chief athletics coach Radhakrishna Nair said India’s men’s and women’s 4x400m relay and mixed 4x400m relay teams will compete in the Sri Lanka Championships on July 30 to collect world championship ranking points.
“We could have won the gold medal in the relay, it was in our hands but the coach’s planning was wrong,” Nair said. The strategy could have been different and we could have won gold in both men’s and women’s 4×4 400m relay.” “Our men’s 4x400m relay team has qualified (so far) for the Budapest World Championships (in August) by finishing 13th but we cannot take it lightly,” he said. To confirm our qualification, the same relay team will participate in the Sri Lankan Championships on July 30, which is a B-category event.
“The women’s 4x400m relay team can qualify with a timing of less than 3 minutes 30 seconds and the mixed 4x400m relay team, which has not qualified so far, will also participate in the Sri Lanka Championships,” Nair said. 8221; Earlier, Kishan Kumar and KM Chanda won silver medals in the men’s and women’s 800m races respectively with their personal best performances. Kishan clocked 1:45.88 to finish second behind Qatar’s Abubakar H Abdala (1:45.53). Chanda clocked 2:1.58 in the women’s 800m race. MK Dissanayaka of Sri Lanka topped the table with a timing of 2:0.66.
Kishan had earlier clocked a personal best of 1:46.17 while Chanda clocked 2:1.58. In the morning session, Priyanka Goswami and Vikas Singh also won silver and bronze medals in the women’s and men’s 20 km race walk respectively. National record holder Priyanka clocked 1:34:24 to finish second behind China’s Yang Liujing (1:32:37) in the women’s 20km race walk. Japan’s Yukiko Umeno won the bronze medal with a time of 1:36:17.
Priyanka’s personal best time, however, is 1:28:45. Bhawna Jat, another Indian competing in the event, finished fifth with a timing of 1 hour, 38 minutes, and 26 seconds. In the men’s 20 km race walk, Vikas clocked one hour, 29 minutes, and 32 seconds to clinch the bronze medal. Japan’s Yutaro Murayama (1:24:40) won the gold, while China’s Wang Kaihua (1:25:29) won the silver.
India’s national record holder Akshdeep Singh could not finish the race as he was disqualified by the judges. The best development time is one hour 20 minutes and five seconds. This is his first medal at the international level. Priyanka, who won a silver medal in the 10km race walk at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Vikas have already qualified for the World Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary from August 17 to 29, and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
