 "Asian Athletics Championships 2025: India defends 4x400m mixed relay gold on Day 2; Tejaswin, Chithravel win silver")
India’s 4x400m mixed relay team defended its gold with a domineering performance after four individual silvers and a bronze in varying events bolstered the country’s overall tally to eight medals on a brilliant second day at the 26th Asian Athletics Championship in Gumi, South Korea.
The Indian quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, Santhosh Kumar, Vishal TK and Subha Venkatesan won the top honours with a timing of 3:18.12sec. Of these, Rupal also claimed the individual women’s 400m silver earlier in the day.
Subha was also a part of the mixed team that claimed gold in the 2023 edition.
China, who finished a distant second with a time of 3:20.52s, and Sri Lanka, who clocked 3:21.95s to take third place, were both disqualified. The reasons for their disqualification have not been disclosed yet.
Due to the disqualifications, Kazakhstan (3:22.70s) and Korea (3:22.87s) clinched the silver and bronze medals respectively.
The largely US-based Tejaswin Shankar was among the silver-winners for India, finishing second in decathlon after accumulating a score of 7618 following the regulation 10 events. He ended behind China’s Fei Xiang (7634) and ahead of Japan’s Keisuke Okuda (7602).
Praveen Chithravel also bagged a silver medal in men’s triple jump with a best effort of 16.90m.
Chithravel said the conditions were normal for him on Wednesday as he is accustomed to much more adverse situations while competing abroad.
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More Shorts“Today, the conditions were very good. In the first two jumps, I just wanted to get into the top 8. Then, on the third jump, I hit 16.90m – and right after that, it started raining. After the third jump, my body started feeling heavy every time I jumped. So today, it was the same,” he said.
“The first jump was 16.60m, the second was 16.67m, and then the third was 16.90m. After that, I felt very comfortable. But about 10 minutes later, it started raining.
“Actually, this is normal for me. Whenever I compete abroad, it’s usually cold and rainy, so I felt the same today. After the rain, it takes more than 40 minutes for me to recover. So then, my body starts to go down, and I have to really push myself. And then… everything is done.”
Earlier, Rupal (400m) and Pooja (1500m) picked up silver medals, Yoonus Shah fetched a bronze in men’s 1500m.
The mixed gold was India’s second top finish after national record-holder Gulveer Singh's (10,000m) brilliance on Tuesday.
Quarter-miler Rupal opened India’s account for the day, clocking 52.68 seconds to finish second in the women’s 400m final. Fellow Indian Vithya Ramraj was placed fifth with a time of 53.00 seconds.
The gold went to Japan’s Nanako Matsumoto (52.17s), while Uzbekistan’s Jonbibi Hukmova (52.79s) took bronze.
Pooja followed with another silver, clocking 4:10.83sec in the women’s 1500m, just ahead of compatriot Lili Das, who finished fourth (4:13.81sec).
Li Chunhui of China (4:10.58) won the gold while and Japan’s Tomaka Kimura ran a season’s best time of 4:11.56 to claim the bronze medal.
Rupal had scripted history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the World U20 Athletics Championships in 2022, claiming a silver in the 4x400m relay followed by a bronze in the women’s 400m events back then.
Hailing from a farming family in Shahpur Jainpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, the 20-year-old is being seen as a bright prospect.
A delighted Rupal said she hopes to better her personal best timing but before that she wants to fix her injury issues.
“My training was going well till national. After that, I was a little worried due to my injury. But the way my training is going and my performance is going, I’m okay. I’m feeling okay. But I’m not satisfied,” she said.
“So, my main target from now on is to fix the problems that I have in my back, in my hamstring. And according to the training that I did before the national, I have already done my personal best during my training.
“So, I think I can improve my personal best. So, I’ll do that after I leave from here,” Rupal added.
In the men’s 1500m, Yoonus clinched bronze with a time of 3:43.03, pushing India’s medal count to five.
Japanese runner Kazuto Lizawa ran a personal best of 3:42.56 to take home the coveted gold medal while South Koreas Jaeung Lee (3:42.79) finished second.
Aside from national record-holder Gulveer’s gold, Servin Sebastian clinched the 20km race walk bronze on the opening day of the competition.
In other results, Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi ran a personal best of 45.57s in the men’s 400m but that could only fetch him a fourth-place finish.
Long jumpers Shaili Singh and Ancy Sojan qualified for the final of the women’s long jump event.
Shaili had a best effort 6.17m, the third best in the 20-woman field. Ancy 6.14m sealed her place in the final.
Hurdler Jyoti Yarraji qualified for the next round after finishing with a time of 13.18s in her heat. She crossed the line in third position.
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