Asian U-20 Athletics Championship: Sunil Kumar wins decathlon gold medal with a borrowed pole vault

Yecheon: Competing with a pole vault borrowed from the organisers, Sunil Kumar won the decathlon gold medal with his personal best performance in the Asian U-20 Athletics Championship, here on Tuesday. The 18-year-old suffered a setback much before stepping out on the track and field when a South Korean airline and Air India barred him from carrying his pole vault due to “technical issues” relating to the five-metre length of the equipment. But that did not stop Sunil from bagging the gold as he won 10-event competition with a personal best tally of 7003 points on the penultimate day of the competition. The Athletics Federation of India had requested the organisers to provide Sunil with a pole as he finished fourth in the event. Sunil won 100m hurdles, discus throw and javelin throw to make up for the below-par show in the other events and secure the gold medal in the gruelling discipline competed over two days. In women’s high jump, Pooja won a silver after clearing 1.82m. Bushra Khan added another silver in the women’s 3000m race, clocking 9:41.47s. The Indian women’s 4x100m relay team took bronze with a time of 45.36s. On the opening day on Sunday, fast-rising Rezoana Mallick Heena and Bharatpreet Singh clinched a gold medal each in women’s 400m and men’s discus throw respectively Shot putter Siddharth Choudhary added another gold on Monday with a personal best throw of 19.52m. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.