BANGKOK, Jul 16: Unheralded Abha Khatua equalled shot put national record while finishing second in a surprise performance while Jyothi Yarraji and Parul Chaudhary clinched their second medals — both silver — as India ended their campaign with 27 medals at the Asian Athletics Championships campaign at third spot here.
India bagged 6 gold, 12 silver and 9 bronze, which equalled the country’s best medal haul in the continental showpiece achieved in the 2017 edition held at home in Bhubaneswar.
But the number of gold was less this time as India had won nine yellow metals in 2017 (9 gold, 6 silver, 12 bronze). India had topped the medal tally in 2017.
India won 13 medals on the final day of the championship — eight silver and five bronze — without any gold. The 28-year-old Khatua made a huge improvement of nearly a metre — 93 cm — from her earlier lifetime best of 17.13m as she sent the 4kg iron ball to a distance of 18.06m in her fourth throw to finish second behind Song Jiayuan (18.88m) of China. Her second-best throw of the day was 17.10m.
Veteran Manpreet Kaur, whose national record Khatua equalled on Sunday, took the bronze with a first-round throw of 17m. “This year, I changed my technique from gliding to rotation. Initially, there was problem in knowing the rotation technique properly. As I began to pick speed, my performance improved, that is the reason,” Khatua said at the virtual media interaction.
A powerhouse in the women’s 4x400m relay with nine gold in the past Asian Championships and a silver in the last edition, India had to settle with a bronze with the quartet of Rezoana Mallick Heena, Aishwarya Mishra, Jyothika Dandi and Subha Venkatesan clocking 3 minute 33.73 seconds.
Vietnam won the gold in 3:32.36 while Sri Lanka took the silver with a time of 3:33.27. In the men’s 4x400m relay, the team of Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal, Mijo Kurian Chacko and Rajesh Ramesh clocked 3 minute 1.80 seconds to finish behind Sri Lanka (3:01.56).
Chief Athletics coach Radhakrishnan Nair said the Indian men’s and women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay teams will take part in the Sri Lankan Championships on July 30 to garner World Championships ranking points.
“We could have won gold medal in relays, it was in our hands. But the planning by the coaches was wrong. The strategy could have been different and we could have won gold in both men’s and women’s 4x400m relays,” Nair said. “Our men’s 4x400m relay team has qualified (as of now) for Budapest World Championships (in August) at 13th position but we can’t take it for granted. To confirm our qualification, the same relay team will take part in the Sri Lankan Championships, which is a ‘B’ category event, on July 30. “The women’s 4x400m relay team, which can also qualify if they run below 3:30.00, and mixed 4x400m relay team, which narrowly missed qualification, will also take part in Sri Lanka.”
In other events, 23-year-old Yarraji, who had become the first Indian to win a 100m hurdles gold in the Asian Championships on Thursday, added a 200m silver to her kitty on Sunday. She clocked a personal best time of 23.13 seconds to finish second behind Veronica Shanti Pereira (22.70) of Singapore in the final. Yarraji’s earlier personal best was the 23.29 seconds which she had clocked in the semifinals. She had won gold in the Federation Cup in May in 23.42.
Ace Indian long-distance runner Parul Chaudhary also won her second medal of the championships with a silver in 5000m. Chaudhary, who had won gold in 3000m steeplechase on Friday, clocked 15 minute 52.35 seconds to finish second behind Yuma Yamamoto (15:51.16) of Japan in the 5000m final. The 28-year-old Chaudhary holds the 5000m national record of 15:10.35. Ankita won the bronze in 16:03.33 as India secured two medals from the event. Gulveer Singh picked up a bronze in the men’s 5000m race with a time of 13 minute and 48.33 seconds.
In men’s javelin throw, DP Manu added a silver with a final round throw of 81.01m. The 23-year-old Manu, the season’s second best Asian javelin thrower with 84.33m after Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, struggled to get going as he could send the iron spear beyond 80m in his final attempt. He had throws of 78.22m, 79.83m, 78.78m, 75.35m and a foul.
Japan’s Roderik Genki won the gold with a fourth round throw of 83.15m. Earlier, Kishan Kumar and KM Chanda clocked their personal best timings to win a silver medal each in the men’s and women’s 800m respectively. Kumar clocked 1:45.88 seconds to finish second behind Abubaker H Abdalla (1:45.53) of Qatar, while Chanda crossed the finish line of the two-lap race in 2:01.58 behind MK Dissanayaka (2:00.66) of Sri Lanka.
Kumar’s earlier personal best was 1:46.17, while Chanda equalled her earlier lifetime best of 2:01.58.
In the morning session, Priyanka Goswami and Vikash Singh won silver and bronze medals in the women’s and men’s 20km race walk events respectively. National record holder Priyanka clocked 1 hour 34 minutes and 24 seconds to finish second in the women’s 20km race walk event behind Yang Liujing (1:32:37) of China. Yukiko Umeno of Japan took the bronze with a time of 1:36:17.
The 27-year-old Priyanka’s time, though, was well outside her personal best of 1:28:45, which she had clocked in 2021. Another Indian in the fray, Bhawna Jat finished fifth with a time of 1:38:26.
In the men’s 20km event, Vikash clocked 1:29:32 to take the bronze medal. Yutaro Murayama (1:24:40) of Japan won the gold while Wang Kaihua (1:25:29) of China took the silver medal. National record holder Akshdeep Singh did not finish the race as he was disqualified by the judges.
The 27-year-old Vikash has a personal as well as season’s best time of 1:20:05. It was his first international medal.
Both Priyanka, who had won a silver in 10,000m race walk in the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Vikash have already qualified for the World Championships (August 17-29) in Budapest, Hungary, and the 2024 Paris Olympics. PTI
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