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Asian athletics: Mixed relay team wins gold, Tejaswin takes decathlon silver
On the second day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea, India won six medals that took their overall medal count to eight
New Delhi: Asian Games silver medallist Tejaswin Shankar narrowly missed gold in decathlon while India’s mixed 4x400m relay team put up a dominating show to defend the title on the second day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.
Tejaswin (7,618 points) gave a tough fight to China’s Fei Xiang (7,634) but fell short by 16 points, finishing second. After two gruelling days, the competition came down to the 10th and last event -- 1500m -- on Tuesday. Tejaswin’s timing (4:37.99) wasn’t enough to close down the gap with Fei. Japan’s Keisuke Okuda finished third (7602 points).
“The difference between gold and silver was 16 points. The difference between silver and bronze 16 points. That’s how close it was. In such championship races, you just want to go all out to secure a medal for the country and I am happy that I was able to do that,” Tejaswin said.
It was a productive day for India with its athletes securing six medals. The 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, Santhosh Kumar, Vishal TK and Subha Venkatesan provided the fireworks, winning the race. The Indian team clocked 3:18.12secs, dominating the race from start to finish. China finished a distant second (3:20.52s) and Sri Lanka (3:21.95s) were third.
Rupal also took the women’s 400m silver, clocking 52.68secs. Triple jumper Praveen Chithravel finished second with a best effort of 16.90m. In women’s 1500m, Pooja bagged silver clocking 4:10.83secs. In men’s 1,500m, Yoonus Shah settled for bronze with a timing of 3:43.03 secs.
Tejaswin won back-to-back medals in decathlon at the continental meet. He has a bronze from the 2023 edition. At the Hangzhou Asian Games that year, he set a national record (7666 pts). In Sumi, Tejaswin led the field after the five events on the first day (100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m) but fell behind on Wednesday. Pole vault and javelin are the events in which he has struggled.
“I got my personal best in shot put (13.79m) on the first day. I was able to summon up all the courage in the third throw as I was really struggling with the first two throws. That changed the momentum. This morning I carried on with the good work with another PB in 110m hurdles (14.58 secs).”
“I have my strong events on the first day and get the lead. But I am never carried away because I know I still have the pole-vault and javelin remaining the next day. It’s a work in progress and I will improve over the course of time.”
In men’s 400m, Vishal TK ran a personal best of 45.57 secs but had to be content with fourth place.
Women long jumpers Shaili Singh (6.17m) and Ancy Sojan (6.14m) qualified for the final.
In 100m hurdles, Jyothi Yarraji progressed to the final after finishing third in her heat clocking 13.18secs.
