India capped off Day 10 of the 19th Asian Games with a glut of medals in athletics, with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
Parul Chaudhary won gold in the women's 5000m race to make it two medals at the Asian Games for herself, after winning silver in the women's 3000m race yesterday. India's medal rush was capped off by Annu Rani winning gold in the women's javelin throw with a season-best throw.
Mohammed Afsal won silver in the 800m final, losing out to Essa Kzwani of Saudi Arabia, while Tejaswin Shankar broke the national record with a score of 7666 in the men's decathlon to win silver. Praveen Chithravel won bronze in the men's triple jump, with a best jump of 16.68m. Earlier, Vithya Ramraj started off India's medal rush on Day 10 of the Asian Games with a bronze in the women's 400m hurdles final.
Parul claims thrilling gold in women's 5000m
Parul Chaudhary started her 5000m final with a measured beginning staying at the back of the lead pack. Eventually, the race came down to the top two - Ririka Hironaka of Japan and Parul trailing behind her. As they rounded the final bend, it seems Ririka had enough of a lead to win gold, but Parul produced a kick of epic proportions with about 30 metres left, overtaking her opponent with a few metres to go down her inside, and claiming a last-gasp gold.
Parul finished with a time of 15:14.75, just 0.59 seconds ahead of Ririka, who finished with 15:15.34, while Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui of Kazakhstan took third with a season-best time of 15:23.12. Parul's compatriot, Ankita, also finished with a personal best of 15:33.03, taking fifth place.
Annu Rani wins gold in women's javelin throw
Annu Rani won her first ever gold medal at a major international event, with a season-best throw of 62.92m to win the women's javelin event. She last won bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games with a 60m throw, while her best effort at the Asian Games was a bronze in 2014.
Nadeesha Hatarabage of Sri Lanka claimed silver with a personal best effort of 61.57 while Lyu Huihui of China 61.29. Rani's second throw of 61.28m put her in pole position, with the 31-year-old haven't throwing past 60m all of 2023. She fell to second place in the fourth throw, but responded with a superb 62.92m effort to go first and eventually win the competition - just 32cm behind her personal best of 63.24m, which is the national record.
Tejaswin Shankar wins men's decathlon silver
Tejaswin Shankar broke Bharatinder Singh's national record in men's decathlon of 7658 points set on 12th June 2011, with an overall effort of 7666 points to win silver. However, Sun Qihao of China was a fair bit ahead with 7816 points to win gold, while Yuma Maruyama of Japan won bronze with a score of 7568.
Tejaswin finished first in the high jump, long jump and 400m events, while third in the discus throw and 4th in the 100m and 1500m pushed him towards the tom of the standings. He finished fifth in javelin throw, shot-put and the 100m hurdles - traditionally his weakest events, while also finishing sixth in the pole vault event.
Mohammed Afsal wins men's 800m silver
Along with Krishan Kumar in the lead pack, Mohammed Afsal made a great start to the race, staying in the lead for much of it. He was briefly threatened by Liu Dezhu of China going into the final lap, but appeared to hold him off. As the athletes rounded the final bend, Essa Kzwani of Saudi Arabia produced an unbeatable burst, going past the rest of the pack and demoting Afsal to silver.
Afsal finished second with a time of 1:48.43, just 0.38 seconds behind Kzwani, while Kumar was disqualified by the end, along with Dezhu.
Praveen Chithravel wins men's triple jump bronze
Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker were the Indians competing in the field, with the latter a CWG medallist from 2022. Chithravel's first jump was eventually his best effort - a 16.68m jump aided by a +0.2 wind. Aboobacker attempted to better that in his second jump, leaping 16.62m, just six centimetres behind Chithravel. That proved to be the duo's best efforts with Aboobacker finishing fourth to Chithravel's third.
Zhu Yaming of China claimed gold with a massive jump of 17.13m, while compatriot Fang Yaoquin leaped 16.93m to win silver.
Vithya wins women's 400m hurdles bronze
Vithya had equalled PT Usha's almost 40-year-old record in 400m hurdles, set in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, yesterday with a time of 55.42 seconds in the heats, and ran just short of that mark (55.68 seconds) in the final to claim bronze.
Mujidat Oluwakemi Adekoya of Bahrain claimed gold with a games record time of 54.45 seconds, while China's Mo Jiadie earned silver with a time of 55.01 seconds, which was also better than the previous games record of 55.09 seconds set by Kemi Adekoya in the 2014 Asian Games.
Vithya was the third-best runner off the blocks, with a reaction time of 0.188 seconds, although the eventual gold and silver medallists had slower reaction times of 0.196 and 0.197 seconds respectively. The Indian stayed in the hunt right until the final curve, where Mo pulled ahead of her while also trailing to Adekoya herself. There was a clear gap from first to second, second to third at the end, with Ramraj finishing 1.16 seconds ahead of Aminat Oluwaseun Jamal of Bahrain in fourth.
Hailing from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, this is Vithya's second medal at her debut Asian Games, with the 25-year-old also part of the mixed 4x400m relay team that won silver yesterday.