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Parul Chaudhary wins silver, Preeti takes bronze in women's 3000m steeplechase at Asian Games
Parul Chaudhary added an Asian Games silver in a year in which she won gold at the Asian Championships as well.
India picked two medals from the women's 3000m steeplechase event at the Asian Games on Monday with Parul Chaudhary winning silver and Priti snatching bronze in a rather exciting finish to the battle for third spot. Bahraini world champion Winfred Yavi took gold medal and smashed the Asian Games record as well. Yavi registered a time of 9:18.28 while Parul registered a new personal best of 9:27.63. It was almost a photo finish for Priti against Bahrain's Getnet Mekonnen and she registered a new personal best as well of 9:43.32.
The Asiad silver is the latest medal that Parul has won in what has been a great year for the 28-year-old. In August this year at the Asian Championships held in Bangkok, Parul registered a national record in 3000m steeplechase with a time of 9:15.31 sec, and in the process qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Priti had been trailing Mekonen by a whisker for much of the final stages of the race and she ended up taking the bronze with a push in the final stretch. Parul, on the other hand, had been the only athlete who able to keep up with Yavi towards the mid-point of the race. The Bahraini world champion then pulled off but there had also been clear daylight between Parul and the two athletes competing for bronze and so, it was a comfortable silver for her.
India's medal haul in athletics has gone up to 14 with these two wins and there could be further additions on Monday. Kiran Baliyan had been the first track and field athlete to win a medal in Hangzhou this year when she took bronze in women's shot put. There was a bit of a medal rush on Sunday in athletics for India with Tajinderpal Singh Toor and Avinash Sable's gold medals in men's shot put and men's 3000m steeple chase. Toor defended his Asian Games gold while Sable smashed the Games record to cruise to a comfortable win.
Silvers were won on the day by Harmilan Bains (women's 1500m), Murali Sreeshankar (men's long jump), Ajay Kumar Saroj (men's 1500m) and Jyothi Yarraji (women's 100m hurdles), with the latter running a race that was riddled with controversy and almost getting disqualified as well. Jinson Johnson (men's 1500m) won bronze.
