Neeraj Chopra led India to a historic gold rush on the final day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Chopra's win in the javelin event was the hosts' fifth of the day and twelfth of the competition. With it India overcame their previous best performance, which was 10 gold medals won at the 1985 Asian Championships. India also won five silvers and 12 bronzes.
Despite the medal rush, there had been few world-level marks registered by the athletes. Chopra would change all that. His effort of 85.23m eclipsed the previous meet mark of 83.27m thrown by Japan's Y Murakami in 2011. Competing in his maiden Asian Championships, Chopra seemed out of sorts at the start. At the end of the fifth and penultimate series of throws, Chopra only had the third-best throw of the competition. However, he had saved his best for last, throwing the spear over the 85m mark for the second time this year. His effort was nearly more than a metre-and-a-half clear of BA Ahmed of Qatar (83.70m) and teammate Davinder Kang who pushed him all the way to the finish with a best effort of 83.29m.
The throw cemented Chopra's claim as the most talented Indian athlete of his generation. He had won the world junior title with a still national record 86.48m throw in 2016. A couple of weeks ago he had competed in his maiden Diamond League event, performed nervelessly and finished fifth in an elite 10-man field with a throw of 84.67m. He had taken the competition as a learning experience. "I'm not worried about how I did in Paris. I was a little inexperienced there. My career has just begun and I have a lot of time in hand," he had said after returning from France.
Chopra backed up his words with a stellar performance in Bhubaneswar. In the coming weeks, the pressure on the 18-year-old will only increase as he heads to his maiden World Championships in London. Considering his performances this season, it would be unwise to write him off.
Muhammad Anas, Arokia Rajiv, Amoj Jacob, Kunju Mohammad -- gold, men's 4x400m
The Indian 4x400m relay team won its first-ever gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships, thus booking a spot at the World Championships in London. While the men's relay team has long been in the shadow of their female counterparts, they have put together a string of strong performances in the last few years, including qualifying for the Olympics in 2016. This year the team was expected to perform well considering three of the runners -- Muhammad Anas (gold), Arokia Rajiv (silver) and Amoj Jacob (fourth) -- had finished in the top four of the individual 400m event earlier in the competition. Indeed, they recorded the seventh-best performance by a country in the 4x400m relay this year.
Nirmala Devi, MR Poovamma, Jisna Mathew, Debashree Mazumdar -- gold, women's 4x400m
The Indian women's relay team defended their proud record at the Asian Championships with their tenth gold medal in the seventeenth edition of the continental event. Like their male counterparts, the women were expected to claim the relay title, having taken three -- Nirmala Devi (gold), Jisna Mathew (bronze), MR Poovama (fourth) - of the top four spots in the individual event. There was little doubt about the result of the race as India finished in 3:31:34 seconds, with Nirmala Devi running the home stretch nearly two seconds clear of Vietnam (3:33:22seconds).
G Lakshmanan -- gold, men's 10,000m
Tamil Nadu athlete G Lakshmanan completed a long-distance double as he added the 10,000m gold to go with the 5,000m crown he had won on the first day of the competition. The 27-year-old won his race in 29.55.87 seconds, beating compatriot Gopi Thonakal (29:58:89 seconds). While his times in both the 5,000 and 10,000m events were relatively slow in what were tactically run races, Lakshmanan will have a chance to improve when he competes in the World Championships on the basis of winning the continental title in the two events.
Swapna Barman -- gold, heptathlon
Heptathlete Swapna Barman, 20, won her first gold medal at the Asian Championships with a personal best of 5,942 points. She might have well won another gold if she had participated in the high jump too. In the second of six events in the heptathlon, Barman had jumped 1.86m -- 2cm more than the winning mark in the standalone event.