Junior Asian Athletics Championships: India's middle distance runner Anu Kumar bags gold medal in men's 800m event

Gifu: Middle distance runner Anu Kumar claimed a gold in the men’s 800m and Arpandeep Kaur Bajwa grabbed a bronze in the women’s discus throw as India added three more medals to its tally on the third day of the Junior Asian Athletics Championships. With one day to go, Indian athletes have already won three gold medals, one silver and nine bronze medals at the event. [caption id=“attachment_4503957” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Anu Kumar running with the tri-colour after clinching the gold medal. Image courtesy: Twitter @afiindia[/caption] India won their third gold of the competition through Uttarakhand based runner Anu, who clocked 1:54.11 seconds to finish ahead of Iran’s Abdolrahim Dorzadeh (1:54.23 seconds). The third step on the podium was claimed by Japan’s Fuki Torii who clocked a time of 1:54.55 seconds. Anu, one of the brightest prospects in middle distance running in India, had won a silver medal in the 800m at the World School Games in France and had clocked 1:50.60 to take gold at the Junior Federation Cup in April this year. While Kumar won gold much as he was expected to, there was a sense of relief for sprinter Gurvinder Singh who managed to secure a bronze medal in the men’s 4x100m relay. Singh was expected to do well in the men’s 100m, having entered the competition after braking the junior national record with a time of 10.47 seconds. Here, though he faltered, clocking only 11.09 seconds to crash out in the heats. In the relay though, Singh and the rest of the Indian team — Prajwal Mandanna Kakera Ravi, Akash Kumar and Nitin Balakumar clocked a time of 40.75 seconds to claim a medal behind winners Japan (39.65 seconds) and Chinese Taipei (39.72 seconds) The final Indian medal of the day came through Arpandeep. The Amritsar based athlete threw the iron disc a distance of 46.57m to take bronze behind the Chinese pair of Yuanyuan Yin and Huanhuan Yang who recorded throws of 51.17m and 51.53m respectively. Arpandeep started off strongly, and was in second place after her first attempt of 46.57m but was overtaken by Yuanyuan in the second series of throws. The Indian athlete, who had recorded a throw of 49.56m at the Junior Federation Cup in April, was not able to improve on her first throw of the competition and eventually settled for the third spot. There was disappointment for the remaining athletes. Durga Pramod Deore, who had won a bronze in the women’s 1500m could only finish fifth in the women’s 800m with a time of 2:12.82 seconds, well behind the gold medal mark of 2:04.14 clocked by Japan’s Ayaka Kawata. Deepanshi Singh, who won gold in the junior federation Cup with a jump of 5.89m also fell short of that mark, clearing 5.66m to finish seventh in the long jump.