Asian Athletics Championships | Abha Khatua equals shot put national record as India end campaign with 27 medals
Unheralded Abha Khatua unexpectedly tied the shot put national record while placing second, and Jyothi Yarraji and Parul Chaudhary each won their second medals, both silver, as India finished third with 27 medals overall at the Asian Athletics Championships.
India won 27 medals, including 6 gold, 12 silver, and 9 bronze, matching its highest performance in the continental competition from the 2017 edition held in Bhubaneswar. However, there were fewer gold medals this time because India had won nine gold, six silver, and twelve bronze medals in 2017.Â
The 28-year-old Khatua significantly increased her previous career best of 17.13 metres (93 cm) when she threw the 4 kg iron ball 18.06 metres (m) on her fourth attempt to place second to China's Song Jiayuan (18.88 metres). 17.10m was her second-best throw of the day.
"This year, I changed my technique from gliding to rotation. Initially, there was a problem in knowing the rotation technique properly. As I began to pick speed, my performance improved, that is the reason," Khatua said during the virtual media interaction.
In other competitions, 23-year-old Yarraji, who on Thursday at the Asian Championships became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles, added a 200-meter silver to her collection.
She placed second in the final, trailing Singaporean Veronica Shanti Pereira (22.70) by a personal-best time of 23.13 seconds.
The time of 23.29 seconds that Yarraji had recorded in the semifinals was her previous personal best. She finished in 23.42 seconds to win the Federation Cup gold.
Parul Chaudhary, a renowned Indian distance runner, took home silver in the 5000-meter race for her second medal of the competition. In the 5000m final, Chaudhary, who had won gold in the 3000m steeplechase on Friday, finished in a time of 15 minutes and 52.35 seconds, just behind Yuma Yamamoto of Japan (15:51.16).