Asian Games: Yashvir, Gulveer, Sreeshankar add silver, Sable fourth

In Neeraj Chopra’s absence, India took the silver and bronze in men’s javelin, Sable ends up fourth

There was no Neeraj Chopra but Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav stepped up brilliantly to take the silver and bronze medal respectively in men's javelin at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on a rainy Monday.

Yashvir Singh (L) won silver while Rohit Yadav took bronze at the Asian Games. (@PMOIndia/X)

The javelin field was strong with the presence of Paris Olympics champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan and Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage, the Commonwealth Games champion and season's leader. Both Nadeem and Pathirage are big throwers and have crossed 90 metres.

Pathirage has been enjoying a breakout season and has crossed 90m thrice, with his best being a monster 92.62m, won the Diamond League Final and the World Athletics Ultimate Championships. He added the Asian Games title with another big throw of 88.55m, completing a season of total domination.

That came in his final attempt after taking the lead following a slow start with 88.33m in his fourth attempt in the rain. Till then Rohit Yadav led with his best effort in the third attempt (84.35m). He eventually took bronze. Yashvir, who took bronze at the CWG behind Pathirage’s gold and Chopra's silver, warmed up with an excellent 83.56m first throw and continued to push himself as the series progressed. He rose to second with his fifth throw (85.14m) and gave his all in the last attempt to register a personal best of 85.72m, sealing the silver medal. Yashvir posted all legal throws.

However, a gold medal continued to elude Indian athletes. India won six gold medals in track and field at the 2023 Haungzhou Games.

There was another sparkling effort on Monday by Murali Sreeshankar, who took silver in long jump (8.07m). China's Shi Yuhao produced his season's best of 8.17m to take gold and Uzbekistan's Anvar Anvarov came third (8.06m).

Sreeshankar could not take his last two jumps after slipping and twisting his left ankle on a slippery takeoff board on his fourth attempt. He also landed awkwardly and limped off the pit. Wet conditions made take-off rather risky for the jumpers. After Sreeshankar, the two Japanese jumpers—Riku Ito and Yuki Hashioka—also faced issues during their attempts.

Sreeshankar sat on the sidelines holding his ankle, grimacing in pain. He eventually decided not to go for the last two attempts. For the second Asiad in a row, he had to be satisfied with silver. Having returned from a career-threatening knee injury this year, back-to-back silver medals in CWG and Asian Games is a boost, provided the injury is nothing serious.

Another big effort came from Gulveer Singh, who took silver in the 1500m, finishing behind Japan’s gold medallist Kazuto Iizawa. Gulveer had won the 10000m silver with an impressive showing. The distance runner will go for a third medal in the 5000m final on Tuesday.

Hitting the front of the pack, Gulveer, Iizawa and Nagiya Mori broke free in the last lap. Iizawa sprinted to a Games record of 3:36.35s, while Gulveer, who produced a brilliant finish, clocked 3:36.72 for a personal best, Mori next at 3:37.92. Gulveer spread his arms in celebration at he crossed the line. Yoonus Shah faded to ninth (3:43.88).

"This is a very important medal in my career. I have no problem in running as many events and want to win medals in them. I could not maintain my final kick speed till the end as I am normally a distance runner, running mainly 5000m and 10000m,” the 28-year-old armyman from Aligarh said in Nagoya.

Gulveer has added 1500m to improve his finishing speed in his main events and it paid off on Monday.

The seasoned Parul Chaudhary bagged bronze in women's 5000m. Parul had won gold in the event in 2023, but Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi, who completed a rare treble of 10000m, 5000m and 3000m steeplechase, was too good. Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka chased after her to take silver. Parul, 31, like at Hangzhou finished with two medals after her steeplechase bronze.

Yavi clocked 15:10.18 and Tanaka 15:11.65, ahead of Parul (15:14.61). The other Indian in the fray, Seema Kumari, who had a brilliant bronze in the 10000m, finished sixth at 15:35.06.

Seema Kaliramna, the CWG bronze medallist in discus, achieved her personal best with a throw of 59.88m, but it was good only for the fourth spot. The bronze, at 61.43m, went to Thailand's Subenrat Insaeng. The gold and silver went to China's Bin Feng (63.83m) and Zhichao Jiang (62.25m).

In men's 400m hurdles, T Santosh Kumar was a disappointing seventh (49.95s).

Avinash Sable, re-building after an injury, did not have the pace or stamina to defend his Hangzhou gold medal in the 3000m steeplechase. In only his second competition after his comeback, Sable season's best (8:21.67) only gave him the fourth place. Japanese front-runner Ryuji Miura won with a Games record of 8:17.36. His compatriot Aoki Ryoma took silver (8:17.60s) and Qatar's Zakaria Elahlaami the bronze (8:18.13).

In women's 4x100m relay, India narrowly missed the bronze (43.57s), the Japanese team edging ahead (43.52s) to finish behind winners China (42.96s) and Thailand (43.51s).