Asian Athletics Championships: Jyothi Yarraji, Parul Chaudhary settle for silver | More sports News – Times of India

BANGKOK: India’s famed 4x400m relay teams failed to live up to their billing as they lost the battle to Sri Lanka in the men’s section and Vietnam and Sri Lanka in the women’s section at the 25th Asian Athletics Championships that concluded at the National Stadium here on Sunday.
India failed to win a single gold on the final day and instead settled for eight silver and five bronze medals to end third in the medals tally with a haul of 27 medals, including six gold.
Among the fine performers on Sunday were young DP Manu (silver, men’s javelin throw), Jyothi Yarraji (silver, women’s 200m) and Parul Chaudhary (silver, women’s 5000m).
Young Manu was content with his silver in his debut meet as a senior international.
“The wind played havoc with my throws. I tried my best, but it was still landing nose down. Then I figured it out and came up with a flat throw on my last attempt,” Manu told TOI.
The women’s 200m final saw a gripping contest between 100m hurdles winner Jyothi and 100m winner Pereria Veronica Shanti. In the end, the Singaporean won in 22.70 seconds with a new championship record. Jyothi clocked her season’s best time of 23.13. China’s Li Yuting came third (23.25).
In the women’s 5000m, though Parul Chaudhary’s double hopes were dashed by Japan’s Yuma Yamamoto, the Indian came home in 15:52.35s to take the silver. Ankita also climbed the podium by winning the bronze in 16:03.33s.
Priyanka Goswami, meanwhile, made use of her extended training sessions in Bengaluru as she won the silver in the women’s 20k race walk that was held on the city roads in the morning.
The rising temperature affected the participants as China’s Yang Liujing clocked 1:32.38s to take the gold. Priyanka (1:34.24) finished ahead of Japan’s Yukiko Umeno (1:36.18).
“The hot conditions affected the timings. I also got two red cards inside the first 10km and was hence cautious not to pick up another card in the remaining period which would have resulted in a two-minute penalty. But I knew I was clearly in line for silver and this race has given me more confidence to do well in the big meets coming up this year,” Priyanka said.

(AI image)
Trained by Gurmeet Singh, a three-time medallist in Asian race-walking championship, Priyanka paid rich tributes to her coach.
“I feel I missed his (sir’s) training for a few years, if not I would have improved further,” said Priyanka, who won the silver in Birmingham CWG in 10,000m race walk.
There were two more silver medals for India in the 800m race as Krishan Kumar and Chanda came second in the two-lap race. While Kumar timed his season’s best of 1:45.88s to finish behind Qatar’s Abubaker Abdalla.
Chanda was looking to snatch the gold when she took the lead after the bell but Sri Lanka’s Dissanayaka (2:00.66s) had a lot in reserve to shift gears and race to the tape. The Indian clocked 2:01.58s ahead of another Lankan, Artigala (2:03.58).
In women’s shot put, Abha Khatun (18.06) took the silver and Manpreet Kaur got the bronze.
(WRITER IS IN BANGKOK AT THE INVITATION OF AAA)