India finish third in Asian Athletics meet

THE Indian mixed 4x400m relay quartet won gold in the mixed relay event at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, last Saturday (15).

The quartet of Rajesh Ramesh, Aishwarya Mishra, Amoj Jacob and Subha Venkatesan clinched top spot in 3 minutes and 14.70 seconds.

Meanwhile, star Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar last Saturday became the first Indian track and field athlete to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, after winning a silver medal in the championships with a second career-best effort of 8.37m.

Sreeshankar, 24, achieved the feat with his final round jump of 8.37m. The Paris Games mark is 8.27m and the qualification period began on July 1. He will be competing in his second Olympics, after being eliminated in the qualification round in the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Four 20km race walkers – Akshadeep Singh, Vikas Singh and Paramjeet Singh Bisht in the men’s event, and Priyanka Goswami in the women’s event – have already qualified for the Paris games. But race walk is aroad event in the Olympics.

The Paris Olympics qualifying period for 10,000m, combined events (decathlon and heptathlon), race walks and relays is from December 31, 2022, to June 30, 2024, while for marathon race, it is from November 1, 2022, to April 30, 2024. The qualifying period for all other events is from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

Sreeshankar, who won a bronze in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, has already qualified for the Budapest World Championships in August with his career-best and world-secondranked jump of 8.41m during the qualification round of the National Inter-State Championships last month.

Sarvesh Anil Kushare added a silver medal in the men’s high jump. It was his first major international medal, with his earlier success coming in the 2019 South Asian Games, where he won gold.

Earlier, Santhosh Kumar won a bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles with a personal best time of 49.09 seconds on the fourth and penultimate day of competition. He also clocked the fastest time by an Indian in men’s 400m hurdles this year. The 25-year-old’s previous best was 49.49 which he had achieved last year.

India finished the event in third spot with 27 medals – six gold, 12 silver and nine bronze. Japan topped the table with China in second place Jyothi Yarraj (women’s 100m hurdles), Abdulla Aboobacker (men’s triple jump), Parul Chaudhary (women’s 3000m steeplechase), Ajay Kumar Saroj (men’s 1500m) and Tajinderpal Singh Toor (men’s shot put), all picked up gold medals.

Shaili Singh (women’s long jump), Swapna Barman (heptathlon), Priyanka Goswami (women’s 20km race walk), Chanda (women’s 800m), Parul Chaudhary (women’s 5000m), Krishan Kumar (men’s 800m), Abha Khatua (women’s shot put), DP Manu (men’s javelin), Jyothi Yarraji (women’s 200m), and Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal, Mijo Chacko Kurian and Rajesh Ramesh (men’s 4x400m relay), won silver medals.

Abhishek Pal (men’s 10000m), Aishwarya Mishra (women’s 400m), Tejaswin Shankar (men’s decathlon), Vikash Singh (men’s 20km race walk), Ankita (women’s 5000m), Manpreet Kaur (women’s shot put), Gulveer Singh (men’s 5000m), and Rezoana Mallick Heena, Aishwarya Mishra, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Subha Venkatesan (women’s 4x400m relay), were bronze medal winners for India.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka finished the championships in fourth place, with three gold, two silver, and three bronze medals.

Tharushi Karunarathna, 18, the current Asian junior champion, secured a gold medal in the women’s 800m.

The men’s 4x400m relay team, consisting of Aruna Darshana, Rajitha Rajakaruna, Pabasara Niku, and Kalinga Kumarage, set a new Asian Championship and a new Sri Lanka record as they won gold, while the women’s 4x400 relay team of Nadeesha Ramanayaka, Sayuri Lakshima, Nishendra Fernado and Tharushi Karunaratne claimed silver.

Ramanayake also won the women’s 400m gold and was part of the mixed relay quartet who won silver.

Pakistan took home a solitary medal, with javelin thrower Mohammad Yasir Sultan claiming a bronze.