Tejaswin Shankar adds heptathlon gold to Indian medal tally of five medals in Asian Indoor Athletics C’ships

New Delhi: India’s 27-year-old Tejaswin Shankar added a glittering gold to the country’s medal tally on the final day of the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tianjin, China, on Sunday, setting a national record for total points in the process. The Indian contingent, with five medals including one gold, finished overall sixth in the medal tally.

Asian powerhouse China topped the medals tally with 34 medals — 10 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze — maintaining its superiority ahead ot the Asian Games to be held towards the end of the year.

On his way to winning the gold medal in the heptathlon on Sunday, Shankar collected 5993 points to better his own national mark of 5650 points set in 2021 in the USA.

Pooja (high jump—silver), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (shot put—silver), and Ancy Sojan (long jump—bronze) were other medal winners on Sunday. Earlier, on the opening day of the event on Friday, India’s high jumper Aadrash Ram Jothi Shankar won a bronze medal.

Shankar was leading at the end of Day One of the heptathlon event. He continued his good form in the next three events—60m hurdles, pole vault, and 1000m in that order–to earn as many as 5993 points, a personal best and national record.

In the 60m hurdles, Shankar clocked a time of 8.02 seconds to earn 977 points. With two events to go, the Indian athlete was nearly 485 points ahead of his nearest rival. Shankar was fourth in pole vault with a height of 4.20m. He earned 673 points to increase his tally to 5163 points.

In the last event of the day–1000m race—Shankar finished second with a time of 2:43.91 (830 points) to increase his total to 5993 points.

Shankar also holds the national decathlon (outdoor) record of 7826 points set last year in Poland. He also won silver in the decathlon at the 2022 Asian Games held in China.

In the men’s shot put, Tajinderpal Singh Toor claimed silver with a season-best throw of 20.05m. Toor’s other legal throws were 19.49m and 19.85m. His last two attempts were no marks.

China’s Chengyu Chen took the gold with a throw of 20.07m. Samardeep Singh Gill, the second Indian in the field, finished fifth with a throw of 18.97m.

In the women’s high jump, India’s dependable athlete—Pooja—clinched silver with a height of 1.87m. Uzbekistan’s Valeriya Gorbatova was first with a similar height of 1.87m. Pooja and Valeriya were unsuccessful in raising the bar as they failed to clear 1.90m in all three attempts.

Ancy Sojan added bronze to the Indian medal tally at the long jump arena. Her best jump on Sunday was 6.21m. Her other two legal jumps were 6.02m and 6.20m.

China bagged a 1-2 podium finish in the women’s group, with their jumpers excelling with their efforts. Shiqi Xiong won gold with a jump of 6.42m. Xiong’s compatriot Zhishuang Li was the winner of silver with a distance of 6.39m.

India’s Moumita Mondal finished sixth in women’s long jump with a distance of 6.01m. Moumita finished eighth in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.40 seconds.

It wasn’t Pragyan Prasanti Sahu’s day as she wasn’t able to advance to the 60m hurdles final despite clocking a personal best of 8.46 seconds in her heat. Promising long jumper Shahnawaz Khan missed out on a medal as he finished fourth in the men’s group.

IANS