Kartik, Gulveer win silver, bronze, end India’s 25-year wait for 10,000m medal

Long jumpers Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin and 100m hurdlers Jyothi Yarraji and Nithya Ramraj qualified for Sunday’s final in the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Kartik Kumar and Gulveer Singh ensured India had a second successive medal day in athletics as they took silver and bronze respectively in the 10,000m at the Hangzhou Olympics Sports Centre Stadium on Saturday. Kumar clocked 28 minutes, 15.38 seconds and Gulveer 28:17.21 on the pleasant evening, both personal bests, as they finished behind Bahrain’s Ethiopian-born Birhanu Balew (28:13.62).                     

The twin medals ended India’s a 25-year wait for a podium in the gruelling event, since Gulab Chand’s bronze at the 1998 Bangkok Asiad. Balew won the 5,000m at the 2018 Jakarta Games.

The two medals came after woman shot putter Kiran Baliyan’s bronze on Friday.

The 26-year-old Gulveer arrived in Hangzhou on the back of a 5,000m bronze at the Asian Championships but it was the first major medal for Kumar who had set a target of breaking the 15-year-old national record that is in the name of Surendra Singh (28:02.89).

“I’ve been trying to break the national record for a long time. It has stood for a long time. It’s fine, I will try again. I will definitely break that record,” Kumar, who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, said.

“My family also keeps encouraging me, saying I will definitely break the record one day. I’m sure they’re watching it on TV tonight.”

In the run-up to the Asian Games, the core group of Indian distance runners, including Ajay Kumar Saroj, Kumar and Singh attended a ten-week training camp from July at the altitude of Colorado Springs, USA. The trio had arrived at the Asian Games straight from the US.

In 400m, Aishwarya Mishra, who had clocked a season’s best 52.73s to come second in her 400m heat, finished fourth in the final with a modest 53.50 seconds.

In the men’s final, Muhammed Ajmal, a member of the 4X400m relay team that finished fifth at the Budapest World Championships in August and set the Asian record, ended fifth clocking 45.97 seconds.

In heptathlon, at the end of the first four events on Day 1 – 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m – India's Nandini Agasara was fourth with 3328 points while Swapna Barman, gold medallist at 2018 Jakarta, was sixth with 3312 points.

Earlier n the morning session, long jumpers Murali Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin qualified for the medal round in cold and wet conditions. The qualifying mark was 7.90m and Sreeshankar produced 7.97m in his opening attempt to book his spot in the final. Aldrin leapt 7.67m to finish second in qualifying Group A and make the cut. Only two jumpers cleared 7.90m, China’s Shi Yuhau (8.14m) and Sreeshankar in Group B.

“I definitely believe both me and Aldrin have a fair chance to finish on the podium. Long jump is all about rhythm and we are in great shape and rhythm. Hopefully, we will end our season on a high,” Sreeshankar had said before leaving for Hangzhou.

The two have been at the forefront of the country's recent rise in horizontal jump events. Sreeshankar, 24, won silver in last year's Birmingham Commonwealth Games. This year, both participated in the World Championships but only Aldrin made the final, finishing 11th among 12 competitors with a best of 7.77m.

The season has been a long one for both Indian jumpers and the challenge for them will be to jump 8m. "It is important to consistently jump 8m overseas. The reason we have not been able to do that often is that sometimes the body takes a while to warm up. We compete a lot in Europe and the conditions there are vastly different from what we have in India," Sreeshankar, who is coached by his father S Murali, a former triple jumper, said.

Sreeshankar was part of the last Asian Games too where he finished sixth in the final (7.95m). This time, he claims to have learned his lessons. “I was just a young boy then, still finding my way. Now, I am mentally and physically a much stronger athlete. I have travelled the world and competed in different conditions, so all that experience should hold in good stead. This will be an Asiad of redemption for me,” he said.

National 100m hurdles record holder Jyothi Yarraji and Nithya Ramraj qualified for Sunday’s final. Yarraji clocked 13.03 seconds to come second in the first heat which China’s Lin Yuwei won at 12.79 secs. Ramraj was fifth in her heat but her faster 13.30 saw her through as one of the fastest losers.