Indian athletes finish 3rd in Asian Junior Championships

Indian athletes ended their campaign in the 17^th Asian Junior Championships at a creditable third position with a rich haul of 17 medals, including seven gold, at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam today. The Indians bagged 7 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze to finish behind Japan (14 gold) and China (11 gold).

India had finished fifth in the previous edition held in Chinese Taipei in 2014 with 12 medals (2 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze).

The Indians seemed to save their best for the last day today as they bagged 3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.

Lily Das and Jisna Matthew grabbed their second gold medals of the Championships.

17-year-old Lily Das from West Bengal clocked 2:06.64sec to win the women’s 800m, to add to her gold in her favourite event of 1500m.

Amoj Jacob won the gold in the men’s 800m with a timing of 1:51.82sec.

The icing on the cake came from the women’s 4x400m relay quartet who struck the last gold for India with P T Usha’s protege Jisna Mathew anchoring the team to the top spot. The Indians were lagging behind with some distance to go in the race before Jisna ran an impressive last leg to win the gold.

The women’s relay quarter of Jisna, Shaharbana Shidiqui Thadian Parambil, V Subha and George Linet clocked 3:43.57sec to take the top honours.

Rio aspirant Neeraj Chopra won the silver in men’s javelin with a best throw of 77.60 metres, behind Japan’s Sado Juniya (77.97m).

The Indian men’s 4x400m relay team, comprising Kiran Murugan, Pankaj Malik, Harsh Kumar and Amoj Jacob finished with a silver, clocking 3:12.12sec, behind Thailand’s 3:11.59.

In the men’s 10,000m race, Abhishek Pal bagged the silver with a timing of 31:24.06sec while compatriot Kishen Narsi Tadvi took the bronze by clocking 32:07.12sec. Sonu Kumar added a bronze medal in men’s triple jump with a performance of 15.99 metres.