India Wins 4 Medals At Asian Indoor Athletics Championships

Tajinderpal, Karanveer Singh, Praveen Chitravel, Swapna Barman, Jeswin Aldrin, Jyothi Yarraji & Archana Suseentran shine at Asian Indoor Athletics Championships.

India has clinched 4 medals on the opening day (1st day) of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships. Tajinderpal, Karanveer Singh, Praveen Chitravel, Swapna Barman, Jeswin Aldrin, Jyothi Yarraji & Archana Suseentran gave excellent performances.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor, who currently holds the men’s outside shot put national record for India, won the gold medal on Friday at the current Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2023 happening in Astana, Kazakhstan, with a personal indoor best of 19.49 m. 

He won a gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games and is the Asian outdoor champion, according to Olympics.com (2019). He took silver in the 2018 championships in Tehran with a throw of 19.18 meters. 

On Friday, Toor missed the winning throw of 19.49 meters on his first attempt but made it on his third and fifth tries to win his first-ever gold medal in the competition.

The sole other competitor, Karanveer Singh, finished in second place with a best throw of 19.37 meters. Kazakhstan’s Ivan Ivanov won bronze with a throw of 18.10 meters.

Indian triple-jumper Praveen Chitravel set a new national indoor record with his leap of 16.98 meters to win silver. 

Chinese Olympian Fang Yaoqing won the gold medal with a leap of 17.20 meters, and South Korea’s Yu Gyumin took home the bronze with a leap of 16.73 meters. Arun AB of India placed 12th out of 15 contestants with a leap of 14.12 meters.

Swapna Barman, who won the women’s heptathlon gold medal at the Asian Games, also set a new national indoor record in the women’s pentathlon with a total point total of 4,119. 

She finished first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.64 seconds, second in the high jump with a leap of 1.75 meters, second in the long jump with a leap of 5.91 meters, fifth in the shot put with a throw of 12.13 meters, and sixth in the 800-meter sprint with a time of 2:27.57 meters in a field of nine competitors. Sowmiya Murugan of India finished ninth with 3654 points.

With 4,386 points, Ekaterina Voronina of Uzbekistan won the pentathlon. Yuki Yamasaki of Japan finished third with 4,078 points.

Jeswin Aldrin of India advanced to the men’s long jump final earlier in the day with a remarkable indoor national record of 7.93 m. He surpassed the 7.92 m previous national record set by Kumaravel Prem Kumar and Murali Sreeshankar.

Muhammed Anees Yahiya failed to advance to the final, which will take place on Sunday and will include eight men, finishing ninth with the best jump of 7.48 m.

Jyothi Yarraji, who holds the women’s 60 m hurdles indoor national record for India, did not perform very well in the 60 m sprint heats, finishing 10th with a speed of 7.47 s.

Women’s 60 m competitor Archana Suseentran qualified for the eight-woman final after placing fifth with a time of 7.42 s.

She ranked fourth (7.39 s) after Indonesia’s Valentin Vanesa Lonteng, who completed with times of 7.37 s, but narrowly missed the podium

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Jyothi, who holds the national record in the women’s 60 m hurdles, will compete. Men’s 60-meter sprinter Amlan Borgohain and women’s long jumper Shaili Singh will both compete. Sunday will mark the end of the championships.