AAC | GOLD RUSH IN ASIAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP

DAY 1 ASIAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP

If Day 1 at the Asian Athletics Championship was good for the Indians, Day 2 was brilliant. 

On a rain interrupted evening, Indians came up with 4 GOLD Medals within half an hour, as if the floodgates opened and the gold rush started. A double gold for India in the 400 m & 1500m in both Women's & Men's category, is a nice advertisement of gender equality in the Indian Athletics scene. 

In 1500m, both in Men's & Women's, Ajay Kumar Saroj & PU Chitra were lagging behind throughout the first half of the race, but then magically came back with a gritty race to not only bag the GOLD Medal, but also London WC qualification along with it.

In Mens 400m, Muhammed Anas & Arokia Rajiv made it a 1-2 for India, winning GOLD & SILVER respectively. And Jacob finished a close 4th. Otherwise, it could have been a historical 1-2-3 for India. In Womens 400m, Nirmala Sheoran & Jisna Mathew gobbled up the GOLD & BRONZE in a comparitively easy race.

Another Gold was expected from home favourite Dutee Chand in 100m Women's sprint but she couldn’t match up her Heats timing, & had to settle for Bronze medal

Shot putter Tajinder Singh Toor was unlucky as he just missed out of the Gold for 3 cm, inspite of having a stunning series of throws- 18.49, 19.58, 19.77, 19.11, a foul and 19.61.

India earned 8 MEDALS on Day2(4G, 2S, 2B)& Overall haul of 15 medals in first 2 Days( 6 Golds, 3 Silvers & 6 Bronze), there by overtaking their medal tally in last Asian Athletics Championship. In 2015 edition, India finished 3rd in Medals Tally winning total of 13 Medals(4G, 5S, 4B).

DAY2 Medals:

GOLD: Ajay Kumar Saroj(1500m, London WC Berth);

Muhammed Anas(400m);

PU Chitra(1500m, London WC Berth); 

Nirmala Sheoran(400m) 

SILVER: Tajinder(Shot put);Arokia Rajiv(400m)

BRONZE: Dutee Chand(100m); Jisna Mathew(400m) 

Below is the highlights of Indian Performances on Day 2 at AAC, 2017:

MEN'S EVENTS: 

A) 4X100 M Relay- Indian team of Amiya Kumar Mallick, Jyotishankar Debnath, Anuroop John & VK Elakkiya Dasan disqualified in Heats for not completing its final baton exchange in the legal zone

B) Triple Jump-Arpinder Singh finished 4th with highest jump of 16.33 m & just missed out a medal. 16.45 was the tied Silver & Bronze mark.

C) 100m SF & Final-Amiya Kumar Mallick disqualified from SF due to a false start.

D) Shotput-Tajinder Pal Toor SILVER (19.77 m), Omprakash Singh Karhana 4th(18.70 m) & Jasdeep Singh Dhillon 8th(18.07m)

E) 1500m-Ajay Kumar Saroj GOLD(3:45.85), Siddhanta Adhikari 5th(3:50.64)

F) 400m-Muhammed Anas GOLD(45.77 s), Arokia Rajiv SILVER(46.14 s), Amoj Jacob 4th(46.49 s)

G) 400m Hurdles Heat-MP Jabir 6th(51.06 s), Santhosh Kumar 8th(51.59 s). Both Qualify for Finals

Durgesh Kumar 12th(52.47s) fails to make it to the Finals.

H)Decathlon-Took place across 2 days of total 10 events(100m, Long Jump, ShotPut, HighJump, 400m, 110m Hurdles, Discus Throw, Pole Vault, Javelin Throw, 1500m)- Abhishek Shetty 5th overall(2nd in Shotput, 3rd in Discus Throw, 3rd in Javelin Throw)

WOMENS EVENTS:

A) 400m Hurdles- Jauna Murmu came 2nd in Heat with timing of 57.96 s. The other Indians R.Anu 4th(58.26) & M.Arpitha 7th(1:00:05). All 3 qualify for the finals

B) 100m SF & Final- In SF, Dutee Chand finished 3rd with timing of 11:56 s, probably reserving her best for the Final. Incidentally she was first in the Heats with faster timing of 11.40 s. Dutee Chand ultimately won BRONZE with 11.52s

c) High Jump-Sahana Kumari tied 6th with 1.75 m. Silver & Bronze Mark was 1.80 m

D) 1500m-PU Chitra GOLD(4:17.92s), Monika Choudhary 10th(4:30.77s)

E) 400m-Nirmala Sheoran GOLD(52.01s), Jisna Mathew BRONZE(53.32s), MR Poovamma    4th(53.36)

F)Hammer Throw-Gunjan Singh 5th(59.19m), Sarita Singh 6th(58.71m), Nidhi Kumari 10th(52.66m)