Indian athletes winning a whopping 13 medals – eight silver and five bronze, on the final day of the competition on Sunday in the Asian Athletics Championship 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The rich haul on the final day also saw India’s medals tally at the Asian Athletics Championship 2023 rise to 27 – six gold, 12 silver and nine bronze.
In terms of medals won, the Bangkok campaign is India’s joint-highest tally at the Asian championship alongside Bhubaneswar 2017. At Bhubaneswar, India won nine gold, six silver and 12 bronze.
Jyothi Yarraji, who had topped the podium in the women’s 100m hurdles earlier, picked her second medal of the competition with a silver medal finish in the women’s 200m finals.
The Indian athlete clocked a new 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.
Despite Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra’s absence in Bangkok, India managed a silver medal in the men’s javelin throw courtesy DP Manu, who logged 81.01m with his final throw to upgrade himself from a bronze to silver.
Indian 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.
Interestingly, Abha Khatua’s mark in Bangkok saw her equal Manpreet’s women’s shotput 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, Indian runners managed silver medals in both the men’s and women’s categories.
In the men’s race, Krishan Kumar clocked a season’s best 1:45.88 to finish behind Qatar’s Abubaker Haydar Abdalla (1:45.53).
While Lavika Sharma did not finish the women’s 800m, her Indian compatriot Chanda secured a silver with 2:01.58.
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.
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).
The Indian 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.
In the final event of the competition, the Indian men’s 4x400m relay team, featuring Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal, Mijo Chacko Kurian and Rajesh Ramesh, grabbed another silver medal.
Indian race walkers struck two medals to start the day.
Vikash Singh clinched a bronze in the men’s 20km race walk, clocking 1:29:32.
The women’s race walk event saw Priyanka Goswami finish with the silver medal with a time of 1:34:24.
