Asian Games: Tajinderpal Toor takes shot put silver, 400m bronze for Prachi

New Delhi: Two-times defending champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor may not have won a hat-trick of gold medals but the seasoned shot putter did enough to claim silver at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday.

On a wet evening at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, Toor’s best effort of 20.64m came in his fifth attempt. Iran’s Tayebise Mohammadreza took the lead with a big second throw of 20.81m that shattered Toor’s Games record of 20.75m, which the Indian had achieved in the 2018 Asian Games.

Toor, who failed to land a medal at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, chased Tayebise but could not catch him. Toor, who had gold medals from 2018 Jakarta and 2022 Hangzhou, completed a brilliant hat-trick of medals. The bronze went to Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Tolu (20.48m).

“I was aiming for a hat-trick of gold medals. My body was feeling good and I was going strong. I was confident that I can throw my best till the sixth attempt and achieve 21m. So, I am a bit disappointed with my performance,” Toor was quoted as saying by PTI from Nagoya.

The second medal of the day in athletics came from the track with Prachi Choudhary bagging bronze in women’s 400m. Prachi clocked 53.21secs.

Salwa Eid Naser, the Paris Olympics silver medallist and four-time world championships medallist, was simply too strong for the rest of the competitors. Naser won gold with a Games record of 49.20secs. Iran’s Zahra Zarei Manoujan clocked 52.38secs to claim the silver medal. Another Indian in fray, Kiran Pahal, came a disappointing fifth with a timing of 53.41secs.

The day also belonged to Tejaswin Shankar, who put himself in pole position after the first day of decathlon. Shankar has a silver medal in the gruelling 10-discipline event from 2023 Hangzhou. Since then he has improved by leaps and bounds and has also crossed the 8000-point mark—the 8057 achieved at the Inter-State this year. At the Commonwealth Games, Shankar showed remarkable grit to claim bronze, competing with a niggle on his knee.

On the first day of his competition the 28-year-old logged 4338 points for the lead. He topped his favourite high jump (2.18m) and long jump (7.53m) events. Usually, Tejaswin’s best comes in the first day’s five events and he looks to collect as many points as possible to cover for Day 2. He clocked 10.98secs in 100m, threw 13.16m in shot put and ran 48.59secs in 400m, the last event of the day.

With hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the 1500m to come, Shankar would look to make the most of it. He is 88 points ahead of China’s Chen Xinghua (4250) and 150 ahead of Japan’s Yuma Maruyama. The Japanese has the season’s best in Asia (8321), followed by Shankar (8057) and Chen (8037).

Gulveer Singh, who bagged the 10000m silver on Friday evening, was back on track for the 1500m heats. He qualified for the final with a timing of 3:45.79. Gulveer was third in his heats, behind Qatar’s Ibrahim Chuot (3:45.54) and Japan’s Mori Nagoya (3:45.66). In the first heat, Yoonus Shah made the cut after finishing third (3:45.77). Japan’s Kazuto Iizawa (3:45.22) topped the heat. The 1500m final is on Monday, while it remains to be seen whether he can handle the load as the 5000m final is on Tuesday.

Animesh Kujur qualified for the 200m final. He won his heat clocking 21.10secs and then came through the semi-final heat. He clocked 20.81secs, behind Thailand’s 100m winner Puripol Boonson, who clocked 20.10secs. Kujur’s national record is 20.32secs.

Harita Bhadra and Unnathi Ayyappa Bolland qualified for the women’s 200m final. Nandhini Kongan entered the 100m hurdles final after Jyothi Yarraji did not start.

In the 400m final, TK Vishal trailed home a poor fifth (45.35secs), way off his national record of 44.98secs set in May. Thailand’s Joshua Atkinson won gold with a personal best of 44.90sec. Suleiman Abdulrahman of the UAE took silver (44.99secs) and Japan’s Yuki Nakajima the bronze (45.22secs).

Yarraji, Chithravel’s withdrawal sparks controversy

There was controversy too in the Indian athletics camp after injuries to 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and triple jumper Praveen Chithravel. While Yarraji pulled out from her heat citing pain during the warm-up while Chithravel ran through his first attempt before slumping on the pit clutching his left leg. He was taken away on a wheelchair.

Both Yarraji and Chithravel skipped the final Indian Athletics Series meet in Delhi merely 15 days ago amid doubts about their fitness and whether they would be able to compete in Japan. The Athletics Federation of India suggested that the athletes had been fit heading to the Games.

“Jyothi was fit and trained fully throughout the preparatory camp. During her warm-up…, she felt discomfort, and the coaching team decided to withdraw her from the race as a precaution. Her long-term fitness comes first,” AFI said on its ‘X’ handle.

In another statement, it said Chithravel too had completed “his full training” and had raised no fitness concerns. “The decision to withdraw was taken by the athlete himself,” it said.