India top medal tally at Asian Athletics Championships 2017
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India put up a dominant performance to secure five gold medals on the final day and top the medal tally for the first time in the history of Asian Athletics Championships. India ended the championship with their highest-ever medal haul of 29 medals (12 gold, 5 silver, and 12 bronze).
China ended the event at the second position snapping 20 medals (8 gold, 7 silver, and 5 bronze) despite fielding a second string team to preserve their best athletes for the upcoming World Championships in London next month.Â
In the final day of the event, India suffered a huge setback after 800m runner Archana Adhav was disqualified, after being initially declared as the gold winner, for pushing Sri Lankan rival
But Archana’s disqualification had little bearing on the other athletes as heptathlete Swapna Barman gave India the first gold of the day by collecting a total of 5942 points from the seven events. However, the 20-year-old collapsed just after crossing the 800m race, the last of the seven events, and was immediately taken to medical.Â
After Barman,
World junior record holder javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra didn’t find it easy in the initial attempts but came back stronger to clinch the gold with a final throw of 85.23m. Devinder Singh, who was embroiled in a marijuana positive test case, secured the third position by clearing a distance of 83.29m.
India wrapped up the championships by winning gold in the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay races and thus surpassed their best performance of 1985 where they had won 22 medals (10 gold, 5 silver, 7 bronze).
India now has it's highest ever @asianathletics haul with 29 medals. Last time, at Jakarta and New Delhi with 21 medals. #AAC2017 pic.twitter.com/tLk7UrJDD5
— Asian Athletics 2017 (@Bhubaneswar2017) July 9, 2017
