Rupal, Subha, Jisna and Rajitha took India to the 400m relay gold.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Some of the country’s biggest medal hopes duly delivered on the big stage as India added six medals to its tally including three gold on day three of the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea, on Thursday.

Jyothi Yarraji, struggling with injuries, a change in running technique and an indifferent year so far produced her best performance of the season to successfully defend her title in the 100m hurdles with a new championship record of 12.96 seconds, although it was slower than the 12.73s she had targeted for automatic World Championships qualification. This was also her first sub-13 run of the season, finishing ahead of Asian Games bronze medallist Yumi Tanaka of Japan and China’s Wu Yanni.

Jyothi produced her best performance of the season.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

It was a productive outing for India and redemption time for the athletes on a day that saw the evening session delayed by more than two hours due to torrential rains and thunderstorms for the second day running.

The conditions, however, did little to halt India’s medal charge with Avinash Sable improving on his bronze from the 2023 edition to win the 3000m steeplechase and the Indian women’s 4x400m relay team scorching the track for the country’s fifth gold in the competition.

Sable ended his long wait for a gold in 300m steeplechase.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Sable, in his third international outing this year after the Diamond Leagues, clocked 8:20.92 for a season’s best to finish more than three seconds ahead of Japan’s Yutaro Niinae, who had led for a large part of the race till the final lap.

Sable also became the third Indian to win multiple medals in the event and the first gold in 36 years after Deena Ram in 1989.

The quartet of Rupal, Subha Venkatesan, Jisna Mathew and Kunja Rajitha saw the Indian women come from behind to outrun Sri Lanka and Vietnam for gold in 3:34.18 with Subha playing the perfect anchor for the second day running. The 25-year old, third at the final bend, took off with powerful strides on the final straight to add to her and India’s bronze from the 2023 edition.

The men’s 4x400m relay team, however, had to settle for silver in 3:03.67 after a slow start from Jay Kumar and while Dharamveer Choudhary and T.S. Manu tried to increase the pace, it took tremendous effort from T.K. Vishal on the final lap to push China to third spot. On the field, Ancy Sojan and Shaili Singh completed a 2-3 in the long jump with a best of 6.33m and 6.30m respectively, behind Iran’s Mobini Arani Rehaneh (6.40m).

Earlier in the day, Sanjivani Jadhav clocked a season’s best of 33:08.17 to finish fifth in the rescheduled 10,000m while Seema was placed sixth in 33:08.23. Agasara Nandini was leading in heptathlon with 3610 points in four events at the end of the opening day.

Samardeep Singh Gill, however, could only manage a best throw of 19.25m to finish sixth in shot put —Tajinderpal Singh Toor was excluded from the squad due to poor form — and Sarvesh Kushare placed fifth in high jump with a best of 2.19m. Seema finished fourth in discus throw with 56.15m.