Asian Athletics Championships: India collects 8 silver, 5 bronze on final day

The Indian track and field contingent finished the Asian Athletics Championship campaign with 27 medals after bagging 13 medals on the final day.

The Indian contingent bagged eight silver medals and five bronze medals on the last day of the event, taking its medal tally to third place – behind Japan (37 medals) and China (22 medals).

Though India failed to win any gold medal on the final day, there were some great performances overall. Jyothi Yarraji, who had won a gold in the 100m hurdles, won a silver in 200m – an event she does not specialise in – with a personal best time of 23.13 seconds.

“I wanted to clock below 23 seconds today but I am still happy that I could do my personal best. I have to take it step by step. I will now target the gold at the Asian Games,” Yarraji said.

Shot put expert Abha Khatua equalled the national record with a throw of 18.06m, which fetched her a silver medal. Khatua – who because the second Indian woman to breach the 18m mark – credited the performance to her new technique.

“I was earlier using the glide method but now I have switched to the rotational method and and it has helped me a lot,” she said.

MP Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to congratulate the athletes for their impressive performance in the Asian Athletics Championships, writing, “Hearty congratulations to Indian Athletics Team as India finished 3rd in Medal Tally with a total of 27 Medals at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 at Bangkok. This is India’s best ever performance in Asian Athletics!”

Asian Athletics Championships disappointment as 4x400m team fails to win gold

One of the major disappointments of the final day was the failure of the Indian contingent to win gold in the 4x400m relay competition.

The Indian men’s team, comprising Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal, Mijo Kurian Chacko and Rajesh Ramesh, finished second with a time of 3:01.80 seconds. The women’s team, comprising Rezoana Mallick Heena, Aishwarya Misra, Jyothika Sri Dandi, and Suba Venkatesan, performed worse, finishing third with a time of 3:33.73 seconds.

Chief athletics coach Radhakrishnan Nair was particularly disappointed with the teams’ performances in an event where he expected to clinch gold. “Better planning could have fetched us gold medals in both the relays. I am not happy with the performance, especially the women. We added Heena but she didn’t run well. But we still have time to build a better team before the Asian games,” the coach said.