Gulveer Singh claims 10000m gold in Asian Athletics Championships

Gulveer Singh became only the third Indian to win the men’s 10,000m gold in the Asian Athletics Championships when he showed a clean pair of heels to Japan’s Mebuki Suzuki and Bahrain’s Albert Kibichi Rop in the final of the 26th edition of the continental event in the Korean city of Gumi on Tuesday. Hari Chand (1975) and G Lakshmanan (2017) were the earlier Indians to win the 25-lap race in the Asian Championships, but it must be said that Gulveer Singh started as the favourite on Tuesday. He did well to stay in the leading pack of five runners, including his team-mate Sawan Bartwal, and producing a kick over the final 250m to emerge a comfortable winner.

A couple of years ago he won 5000m bronze in the Asian Championships in Bangkok and the 10000m bronze in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Gulveer Singh showed that he has matured as a runner with his tactics on Tuesday. While he owns the National Record at 27:00.22, he found comfort in the race pace and changing gears with just over 200m left for the finish. India opened its account on the medal tally through Servin Sebasthiyan who won bronze in the men’s 20km Race Walk. He clocked 1:21:14.00, a time that was faster than the existing championship record of 1:24:41.00 but he had to be content with third place behind China’s Wang Zhaozhao and Japan’s Kento Yohsikawa.

Annu Rani finished fourth in the women’s Javelin Throw with a best effort of 58.30m on her third try. The Indian, with a personal best of 63.82 and at least 26 throws over 60m mark in her career, was unable to find the distance when Japanese Sae Takemoto (58.94m on fourth attempt) and Momone Ueda (59.59m) on the last attempt went past her. Vishal TK clocked a personal best time of 46.05 seconds in the men’s 400m semifinal to make it to qualify for the final. His previous best was 46.19 in winning gold in the Federation Cup in Kochi on April 22. His team-mate Jay Kumar finished fourth in his semifinal heats and went out as his time of 46.87 was not fast enough to secure him a final berth. Rupal Chaudhary and Vithiya Ramaraj took their appointed place in the women’s 400m final, clocking 53.00 seconds and 53.32 seconds respectively. Japan’s Nanako Matsumoto produced the best time in the three heats, her 52.24 second effort being the only sub-53 run on Tuesday.

Tejaswin Shankar opens up lead in Decathlon 

Asian Games silver medalist Tejaswin Shankar did well to open up a lead over Japan’s defending champion Yuma Marayuma on the first day of Decathlon. He notched up a career best effort in Shot Put  with 13.79m but it was High Jump prowess that helped him catapult in the lead. His cleared 2.19m, a good 18cm and 169 points more than anyone else in the field. Chasing gold that will earn him a ticket to the World Championships in Tokyo later this year, his first day’s effort were 11.20 seconds in 100m (817 points), 7.28m in Long Jump (881), 13.79m in Shot Put (715), 2.19m in High Jump (982) and 50.10 seconds in 400m (810). He thus held a 140-point advantage over the Japanese with China’s Feo Xiang a further 190 behind. In the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games in September 2023, he held a 250-point lead after the first day but was edged out to the second place by China’s Sun Qihao. The nine decathletes left in the fray will compete in 110m Hurdles, Discus Throw, Pole Vault, Javelin Throw and 1500m on Wednesday.