Indian women’s 4x400m relay team clinched the gold medal while the men took silver at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, Korea, on Thursday.
The quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha and Subha Venkatesan helped India win its first gold in the event since 2013 as it clocked 3:34.18s. Vietnam (3:34.77s) grabbed silver while Sri Lanka (3:36.67s) clinched the bronze.
In the men’s event, the quartet of Jay Kumar, Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil Saji and Vishal TK finished behind Qatar to take the silver medal in a thrilling race. India clocked 3:03.67s while Qatar’s timing was 3:03.52s. China (3:03.73s) grabbed the bronze medal.
In women’s long jump, Ancy Sojan and Shaili Singh won the silver and bronze medals, respectively while Reihaneh Mobini Arani grabbed a historic first-ever gold medal in the event for Iran.
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Asian Games silver medallist Ancy’s best jump of 6.33m came in the third round while for Shaili, who had won the silver medal at the previous Asian Championships in Bangkok in 2023, her opening jump of 6.30m remained her top effort.
Arani took the gold with a second-round jump of 6.40m.
In heptathlon, Nandini Agasara (3,610 points) was the leader at the end of four events with China’s Liu Jingyi (3,412 points) and Chinese Taipei’s Cai Juan Chen (3,410 points) trailing her. The remaining three events – long jump, javelin throw and 800m – will take place on Friday.
In men’s high jump, Sarvesh Kushare finished fifth as he failed to clear the bar set at 2.23m while in men’s shot put, Samardeep Singh Gill finished sixth with a best throw of 19.25m.
India has won 14 medals – five gold, six silver and three bronze – at the ongoing edition which concludes on Saturday.