Asian Athletics Championship: Swapna Barman, Asian Games gold medalist secures silver in hepthathlon

Asian Games gold medallist heptathlete Swapna Barman and the 4x400m mixed relay team clinched a silver each while Sanjivani Jadhav won a bronze in 10000m race on the third day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha on Tuesday. The 22-year-old Barman logged 5993 aggregate points from the seven events to finish second behind Ekaterina Vornina (6198 points) of Uzbekistan, while Purnima Hembram, the other Indian in the fray, was fifth with 5528 points. Barman's aggregate points on Tuesday was more than the 5942 she had logged while winning the gold in the last edition in 2017 but was less than the 6026 she had accumulated in the Asian Games in Jakarta last year.

In the 4x4000m mixed relay team which was introduced for the first time in this championship, the Indian quartet of Mohammed Anas, M R Poovamma, V K Vismaya and Arokia Rajiv clocked 3:16.47 to finish second, behind Bahrain. Hima Das who pulled out of 400m due to lower back spasm did not take part in the event.

The 22-year-old Sanjivani won the last medal of the day for India as she clocked a personal best time of 32 minutes 44.96 seconds to finish third behind Bahrain's Shitaye Habtegebrel (31:15.62) and Japan's Hitomi Niiya (31:22.63).

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With the two silver and one bronze on Tuesday, India stood fourth in the medal tally with two gold, five silver and six bronze at the end of the third and penultimate day. In the women's 4x100m relay race, India finished fourth with the quartet of Dutee Chand, Archana Suseentra, Revathi Veeramani and Kunnath Ranga clocking 43.81 seconds.

After a disappointing fifth-place finish in the 100m dash, Dutee ran the 200m heats and qualified for the final. She won her heat in 23.33 seconds. 3000m steeplechaser Parul Choudhary clocked personal best of 10:03.43 to finish fifth in the final.

In men's 1500m race, Ajay Kumar Saroj qualified for the finals after clocking 3 minutes 49.20 seconds in the heats. Saroj's colleague and top medal contender Jinson Johnson pulled out of the 1500m race due to injury in a big jolt to India. "His left calf muscle is troubling him at the moment. Doctors have advised him not to compete in such situation," Deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair said in a statement.

Johnson did not also complete his 800m final race on Monday. He holds national records in both 800m and 1500m.

On the opening day on Sunday, Hima Das pulled out of the 400m race due to a lower back spasm while the likes of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and national record holder 400m hurdler Dharun Ayyasamy and long jumper M Sreeshankar missed out of the championships due to injuries.  

HIGHLIGHTS

• Hima Das pulled out of the 400m event due to a back spasm
• Neeraj Chopra missed the event due to injury.
• India are fourth in the medals tally with two gold, five silver and six bronze.