Asian Athletics C’ships: Parul, Jyothi clinch second medal

Bangkok (Thailand); Parul Chaudhary and Jyothi Yarraji won their second medals in the competition but India could not get any more gold on the final day, winning 12 medals on the final day to take third place in the Asian Athletics Championship 2023 with a total of 27 medals including six gold medals.

Besides the six gold medals, India bagged 12 silver medals and nine bronze in the event being held after a gap of four years after the 2021 edition in Hangzhou was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, coming up with a fine performance a month before World Championships in athletics.

India finished third, in terms of gold medals, behind Japan 37 (16 gold, 11 silver, 10 bronze) and China 22 (8 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze) while Sri Lanka are fourth with eight medals, 3 gold, two silver and three bronze.

With this performance, India equalled their best-ever showing at the Asian Athletics Championships in terms of medal count, equalling the 27 medals bagged at Bhubaneswar in 2017. On that occasion, India won nine gold medals.

On Sunday, India won eight silver and four bronze medals though a gold medal eluded them as eight of them came close to bagging the yellow metal.

Sprinter Jyothi Yarraji was the star performer for India on the final day of the Asian Athletics Championship 2023 being held to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Asian Athletics Association as he added a silver to the gold she won in the women's 100m hurdles. Jyothi came up with a brilliant sprint to clock a season-best timing of 23.13 seconds to win silver in women's 200m.

Parul Chaudhary also won her second medal of the event, a silver in the women's 5000m race, adding to the gold she won in the 3000m steeplechase. Parul clocked 15 minutes 52.35 seconds for silver and India made a double podium finish in the event as Ankita claimed the bronze medal by clocking 16:03.33 in the five-day event being held at the National Stadium in Bangkok.

The other top performance came in women's shot put with India's Abha Khatua winning silver and Manpreet Kaur claiming bronze. Abha heaved the iron ball to 18.06 metres and equalled the women's shotput national record while Manpreet cleared a distance of 17m.

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.

India's Manu DP also came up with a good performance, claiming silver in the men's javelin throw with a distance of 81.01m.

In the heptathlon, India's seasoned Swapna Barman finished second with a score of 5840 points, coming up with a superb performance.

Middle distance runner Krishna Kumar came up with his season's best and personal best effort to win silver in men's 800m. The SAI Bengaluru camper clocked 1:45.88 to finish second.

KM Chanda win the seventh silver on Sunday when she clocked 2:2.58, a season-best, to win the women's 800m. The men's 4x400 metre relay team of Amoj Jacob, Muhammad Ajmal, Mijo Kurian and Ramesh Rajesh clocked 3:01.80 seconds to win a silver for India while the women's 4x400m relay team of Rezoana, Aishwarya, Jyothika and Subha won a bronze medal in a time of 3:33.73, coming up with a season's best performance.

India's Gulveer Singh won bronze in the men's 5000m race by clocking 13:48.33, finishing third behind two Chinese athletes.