India win 6 medals in athletics
HANGZHOU, Oct 3:
Annu Rani rose from the ashes to win a javelin gold, while Parul Chaudhary pulled off a heist to claim the top prize in women’s 5000m as Indian athletes bagged six medals from track and field at the Asian Games, here on Tuesday.
With two gold, two silver and two bronze, India’s medal tally from athletics rose to 22 (4 gold, 10 silver, 8 bronze), surpassing the 20 medals that the country had achieved in 2018 edition. This has already become the highest number of medals in athletics after the 34 won in the inaugural edition in 1951.
The 31-year-old Annu, who has been in awful form the whole season, produced a season-best effort of 62.92m in her fourth attempt to became the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold in javelin throw.
This was her second Asian Games medal as she had won a bronze in the 2014 edition.
For India, Barbara Webster (bronze in 1951), Elizabeth Davenport (bronze in 1962) and Gurmeet Kaur (bronze in 1998) have earlier won Asian Games medals in the competition.
“I was trying the whole year and I was not able to give my best. I was feeling depressed and under pressure because the government spent a lot of money sending me abroad for training,” Annu said.
“This was my last competition of the season and I did not give up. So I was determined to give my best.”
She revealed that she was on the verge of quitting after a series of poor shows but decided against it to give herself a chance. (PTI)
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