Tianjin (China), Feb 8 (PTI) Tejaswin Shankar won the men’s heptathlon event to clinch India’s lone gold as the country ended the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships campaign with five medals here on Sunday.
India finished overall sixth in the medals tally. China topped the chart with 34 medals — 10 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze.
On his way to winning the gold medal in heptathlon, Shankar collected 5993 points to better his own national indoor mark of 5650 points set in 2021 in the USA.
Pooja (silver in high jump), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (silver in shot put) and Ancy Sojan (bronze in long jump) were other medal winners on Sunday.
On opening day on Friday, India’s high jumper Aadrash Ram Jothi Shankar had won a bronze.
Shankar, who was leading on Day 1, continued his good form in the next three events — 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1000m — on Sunday.
In the 60m hurdles, Shankar clocked a time of 8.02 seconds to earn 977 points. With two events to go, the Indian athlete was nearly 485 points ahead of his nearest rival.
Shankar was fourth in pole vault with a height of 4.20m. He earned 673 points to increase his tally to 5163 points. In 1000m, the last event of the day, Shankar finished second with a time of 2:43.91 (830 points) to increase his total to 5993 points.
Shankar also holds the national decathlon (outdoor) record of 7826 points set last year in Poland. He also won silver in decathlon at the 2023 Asian Games held in China.
In the men’s shot put, Tajinderpal Singh Toor claimed a silver with a season best throw of 20.05m.
Toor’s other legal throws were 19.49m, 19.85m. His last two attempts were no marks. China’s Chengyu Chen took the gold with a throw of 20.07m.
Samardeep Singh Gill, the second Indian in the field, finished fifth with a throw of 18.97m.
In the women’s high jump, Pooja clinched a silver with a height of 1.87m.
Ancy Sojan added a bronze at the long jump arena. Her best jump on Sunday was 6.21m. Her other two legal jumps were 6.02m and 6.20m.
Moumita Mondal finished sixth in women’s long jump with a distance of 6.01m.
Promising long jumper Shahnawaz Khan missed out on a medal as he finished fourth. PTI PDS SSC SSC
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