Asian Athletics C’ships: Gulveer caps sensational double with 5000m gold; Pooja, Nandini also add to tally - The Statesman

With the addition of four medals on the day, India’s tally swelled to 18 inclusive of 8 golds, 7 silver and three bronze medals. China continues to lead the chart with a total of 26 medals

(15 gold, 8 silver and 3 bronze) while Japan is at third with 24 medals (4 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze). The event ends on Saturday.

Cementing his legacy in Indian long-distance running, national record holder Gulveer Singh capped a sensational double by clinching a gold in the men’s 5000m event with a new meet record at

the 26th Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi (South Korea) on Friday. Moments after, Pooja (women’s high jump) and Nandini Agasara (heptathlon) tripled India’s joy by topping the podiums

in their respective events before Parul Chaudhary wrapped up Day 4 proceedings with a 3000m steeplechase silver.

With the addition of four medals on the day, India’s tally swelled to 18 inclusive of 8 golds, 7 silver and three bronze medals. China continues to lead the chart with a total of 26 medals

(15 gold, 8 silver and 3 bronze) while Japan is at third with 24 medals (4 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze). The event ends on Saturday.

The 26-year-old from Atrauli in Uttar Pradesh, who had earlier claimed gold in the 10,000m with a time of 28:38.63 on the opening day, began India’s gold rush on Friday by smashing a

decade-old meet record in a thrilling men’s 5000m final.

0The national record holder clocked 13:24.77, edging out Thailand’s Kieran Tuntivate (13:24.97) and Japan’s Nagiya Mori (13:25.06). He broke the previous meet record of 13:34.47, set by

Qatar’s Mohamed Al-Garni in 2015.

With that feat, Gulveer joins an elite group of Indian runners — Gopal Saini (1981), Bahadur Prasad (1993), and G Lakshmanan (2017) — to win 5000m gold at the continental meet.

Later, Pooja became only the second Indian woman high jumper after Bobby Aloysius (2000 & 2002) to win a gold medal at the Asian Championships. The 18-year-old registered a season-best 1.89m

to claim the top spot, also eclipsing her own Under-20 national record.

The Haryana teen, whose father is a construction worker, later attempted 1.92m to match the senior national record set by Sahana Kumari in 2012, but missed the mark. Pooja has made rapid

progress in the last couple of years, having earlier collected a gold at the Asian Under-23 Championships in 2023.

In addition to Gulveer and Pooja, Nandini Agasara kept India’s flag flying with a sensational performance in heptathlon. Having topped the chart after the four events on Thursday, Agasara

started as one of the favourites for the gold medal but was trailing China’s Liu Jingyi by 54 points ahead of the final event — 800m race.

In the 800m race, the Asian Games bronze medallist displayed the right composure to clock 2:15.54 and score 885 points as against Jingyi’s 2:24.87, fetching her 759 points. That gap was

enough for Agasara to clinch the gold and become only the third Indian to claim an Asian Championships heptathlon gold, after Soma Biswas (2005) and Swapna Barman (2017).

The heptathlon, a two-day event comprising seven disciplines – 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin throw, and 800m – demands consistency and mental strength.

Later in the day, Parul Chaudhary added the silver lining to India’s medal tally by finishing second in the women’s 3000m steeplechase event. The 30-year-old Parul, who had won a gold in the

previous edition in Bangkok in 2023, clocked 9:12.46, breaking the previous national record of 9:13.39 that she had set in the Doha Diamond League, earlier in the month.

Kazakhstan’s Norah Jeruto Tanui won the race with a timing of 9:10.46, while her compatriot Daisy Jepkemei clinched bronze, clocking 9:27.51.

Earlier, the Indian men’s 4×100 relay team that had initially finished second in the heats was later disqualified when the official results were being announced but Sachin Yadav and Yashvir

Singh made the men’s javelin throw finals alongside reigning Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan.

The Indian quartet of Pranav Pramod Gaurav, Ragul Kumar Ganesh, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain was knocked out of the competition after being found guilty of baton exchange outside

the takeover zone, violating World Athletics’ Technical Rule 24.7.

It has been learnt that India has opted not to contest the decision. The Malaysian team was also disqualified for the same infraction.

However, there was good news for the Indian contingent elsewhere as Sachin and Yashvir entered the 12-man javelin throw final. While Sachin covered 79.62m to be placed fifth, Yashvir

qualified for Saturday’s finale with a throw of 76.67m. Nadeem, expectedly topped the qualifiers with a modest effort of 86.34m in what was his first competition since the gold-winning

monstrous throw of 92.97m in the Paris Olympics last year.