Gumi (South Korea), May 28: India’s 4x400m mixed relay team defended its gold with a domineering performance after four individual silvers and a bronze in varying events bolstered the country’s overall tally to eight medals on a brilliant second day outing at the 26th Asian Athletics Championship here.
The Indian quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, Santhosh Kumar, Vishal TK and Subha Venkatesan won the top honours with a timing of 3:18.12sec. Of these, Rupal also claimed the individual women’s 400m silver earlier in the day.
Subha, on the other hand, was a part of the mixed team that claimed gold in the 2023 edition.
China, who finished a distant second with a time of 3:20.52s, and Sri Lanka, who clocked 3:21.95s to take third place, were both disqualified. The reasons for their disqualification have not been disclosed yet.
Due to the disqualifications, Kazakhstan (3:22.70s) and Korea (3:22.87s) clinched the silver and bronze medals respectively.
The largely US-based Tejaswin Shankar was among the silver-winners for India, finishing second in decathlon after accumulating a score of 7618 following the regulation 10 events. He ended behind China’s Fei Xiang (7634) and ahead of Japan’s Keisuke Okuda (7602).
Praveen Chithravel also bagged a silver medal in men’s triple jump with a best effort of 16.90m.
Earlier, Rupal (400m) and Pooja (1500m) picked up silver medals, Yoonus Shah fetched a bronze in men’s 1500m.
The mixed gold was India’s second top finish after national record-holder Gulveer Singh’s (10,000m) brilliance on Tuesday.
Quarter-miler Rupal opened India’s account for the day, clocking 52.68 seconds to finish second in the women’s 400m final. Fellow Indian Vithya Ramraj was placed fifth with a time of 53.00 seconds.
The gold went to Japan’s Nanako Matsumoto (52.17s), while Uzbekistan’s Jonbibi Hukmova (52.79s) took bronze.
Pooja followed with another silver, clocking 4:10.83sec in the women’s 1500m, just ahead of compatriot Lili Das, who finished fourth (4:13.81sec).
Li Chunhui of China (4:10.58) won the gold while and Japan’s Tomaka Kimura ran a season’s best time of 4:11.56 to claim the bronze medal.
Rupal had scripted history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the World U20 Athletics Championships in 2022, claiming a silver in the 4x400m relay followed by a bronze in the women’s 400m events back then.
Hailing from a farming family in Shahpur Jainpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, the 20-year-old is being seen as a bright prospect.
In the men’s 1500m, Yoonus Shah clinched bronze with a time of 3:43.03, pushing India’s medal count to five.
Japanese runner Kazuto Lizawa ran a personal best of 3:42.56 to take home the coveted gold medal while South Koreas Jaeung Lee (3:42.79) finished second.
Aside from national record-holder Gulveer’s gold, Servin Sebastian clinched the 20km race walk bronze on the opening day of the competition.
In other results, Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi ran a personal best of 45.57s in the men’s 400m but that could only fetch him a fourth-place finish.
Long jumpers Shaili Singh and Ancy Sojan qualified for the final of the women’s long jump event.
Shaili had a best effort 6.17m, the third best in the 20-woman field. Ancy 6.14m sealed her place in the final.
Hurdler Jyoti Yarraji qualified for the next round after finishing with a time of 13.18secs in her heat. She crossed the line in third position. (PTI)
