Yarraji, Sable, women’s 4x400m relay finish on top to extend India’s dominance
Gumi (South Korea), May 29: It rained gold for India at the Asian Athletics Championships on Thursday as the country’s fastest woman hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, seasoned steeplechase runner Avinash Sable and the 4x400m women’s relay team delivered stupendous performances to finish on top here.
After Jyothi and Sable set the tone, the quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha and Subha Venkatesan clinched the gold medal in the women’s 4x400m relay event after clocking their season-best time (3:34.18sec) to extend India’s dominance on the third competition day of the continental championship.
Vietnam took silver with 3:34.77sec, while Sri Lanka settled for the bronze with 3:36.67sec.
This was the 10th gold overall for India in the event and first since 2013. Overall, India snared three gold, two silver and a bronze medal on Thursday taking their overall tally to 14 after proceedings were disrupted by a massive thunderstorm.
India are currently placed second in the overall standings behind China, who have 21 medals including 12 gold.
The men’s 4x400m relay team of Jay Kumar, Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil Saji and Vishal TK also looked to be on course for a gold medal before settling for silver with a timing of 3:03.67sec which was their best performance so far.
Qatar (3:03.52sec) won the gold medal, while China (3:03.73sec) ended the race with bronze in the men’s 4x400m relay.
Earlier, on his way to victory with a season-best performance, Sable became the first Indian man in 36 years to win a gold medal in steeplechase at the Asian Championships.
“I was confident of winning gold as I was best in the field,” said Sable, who has already qualified for the World Championships in September.
Soon after, Jyothi produced a late burst to clinch her second straight gold medal in this competition with a new championship record of 12.96 seconds. The previous record was 12.99 seconds, achieved by China’s Su Yiping in the 2000 edition of the tournament.
Sable clocked 8:20.92sec to claim the top honour, which is also his second Asian medal after a silver in the 2019 edition. It was, however, nowhere close to his national record of 8:09.91sec achieved in 2024.
The last time India won a gold in this event was way back in 1989 when Dina Ram finished on top. Harbel Singh was the first Indian to fetch a men’s steeplechase gold at the showpiece back in 1975.
In the 2023 edition, Jyothi won the gold medal with an effort of 13.09. But her personal best timing, which is also the national record, is a way better 12.78 seconds.
The Asian Games silver-medallist, nonetheless joined a select club of five athletes to defend gold in the Asian Championships 100m hurdles, the others being Emi Akimoto of Japan (1979, 1981, 1983), Zhang Yu of China (1991, 1993), Su Yinping of China (2003, 2005) and Sun Yawei of China (2009, 2011).
Moments before Jyothi’s triumph, Sable lived up to the favourite tag with some ease to consolidate the country’s position in the 26th edition of the continental tournament.
Japan’s Yutaro Niinae, who clinched the silver with 8:24.41sec, was leading at the start of the final lap but the Indian ace produced a brilliant effort to go past him and claim the top prize.
The Hangzhou Asian Games gold-medallist continued to stay ahead of the pack with four laps to go but he had two Japanese athletes following him closely.
Niinae overtook Sable with three laps remaining, but the Indian had the last laugh. Qatar’s Zakaria Elahlaami took the bronze after clocking 8:27.12sec.
After Jyothi and Sable’s exploits, the quartet of Jisna, Rupal, Kunja and Subha ensured a hat-trick of gold medals for India on the day. That was Rupal’s third medal, having won a mixed team gold and an individual 400m silver in the championship.
For Subha, it was her second gold after her podium finish in the mixed relay event.
Later, long jumpers Anci Sojan Edapilly (6.33m) and Shaili Singh (6.30m) fetched a silver and bronze respectively, finishing behind Iran’s Reihaneh Mobini Arani, who covered 6.40m. It was a poor show by Shaili, whose personal best is 6.76m. However, she might have been hampered by the wet track.
Another top finish awaits India on Friday as Nandini Agasara leads the standings after four events with an accumulated score of 3610. (PTI)