Hangzhou, Oct 3: Parul Chaudhary pulled off a heist for a sensational women’s 5000m gold, while Annu Rani conjured up her season-best performance to claim the top prize in women’s javelin throw 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.
Parul stamped her class to become the first woman to win an Asian Games gold medal in 5000m race, to add to the 3000m steeplechase silver that she won on Monday.
The 28-year-old was behind Japan’s Ririka Hironaka in the closing stage but produced a stunning dash in the final 40 metres to claim the yellow metal with a timing of 15:14.75.
Kazakhtan’s Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui won the bronze clocking 15:23.12.
Sunita Rani (silver in 1998 and bronze in 2002), OP Jaisha (bronze in 2006), Preeja Sreedharan (silver in 2010) and Kavita Raut (bronze in 2010) have earlier won Asian Games medals for India in women’s 5000m race.
Annu’s season-best effort
Later, the 31-year-old Annu, who had 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.
The Uttar Pradesh athlete’s earlier best this season was 59.24m which fetched her a gold at the Federation Cup in May.
She has been under tremendous pressure after a string of poor shows. She has a personal best of 63.82m, which is the national record.
Shankar bags silver
Delhi boy Tejaswin Shankar established himself as the country’s unrivalled decathlete by clinching a silver in the gruelling 10-event discipline with national record total points of 7666 total points.
He made a fourth-place finish in the 1500m — the final event of the physically-demanding competition.
It was India’s first men’s decathlon medal since 1974. Vijay Singh Chauhan was the last Indian to win a decathlon medal in Asian Games in 1974, while the national record belonged to Bharatinder Singh (7,658 points) in 2011.
Silver in men’s 800m
Muhammed Afsal also picked up a silver in the men’s 800m race with a time of 1:48.43s, before national record holder triple jumper Praveen Chitravel won a bronze with a below-par performance of 16.68m.
Ramraj bags bronze
In women’s 400m hurdles, Vithay Ramraj, 25, failed to match her national record equalling time of 55.42 seconds which she had clocked during the heats but won a bronze with a time of 55.68 seconds.
Bahrain’s Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya produced a Games record of 54.45s and Jaidie Mo of China came up with a season-best of 55.01 to claim the gold and silver respectively.
The Indian had equalled PT Usha’s 400m hurdle national record, which was set in 1984, with a personal best effort of 55.52s to top her heat and directly qualify for the final on Monday.
Ramraj was also part of the Indian quartet, including Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Rajesh Ramesh and Subha Venkatesan, that had won the bronze in mixed team 4x400m relay before it was upgraded to silver on Monday after Sri Lanka’s disqualification for lane infringement.
In men’s 400m hurdles, Yashas Palaksha (49.39) and Santhosh Kumar (49.41) finished fifth and sixth respectively in the final.
In women’s high jump final, Pooja and Rubina Yadav ended their campaign at the sixth and ninth positions respectively. (PTI)
