Tajinderpal Singh Toor breaks record, wins shot put gold

Tajinderpal Singh Toor clinched the men’s shot put gold with a record-shattering throw to open India’s medal account in athletics at the 18th Asian Games.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor on the podium after bagging gold in shot put.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor clinched the men’s shot put gold with a record-shattering throw to open India’s medal account in athletics at the 18th Asian Games here on Saturday.

The 23-year-old's throw of 20.75m was enough to win the gold and set a national record as well. He bettered the six-year-old record of 20.69m in the name of Om Prakash Karhana.

Toor’s effort was also an Asian Games record.

Toor lived up to the billing of being the strongest contender as he was the season leader among the Asian athletes in this event. His earlier personal best was 20.24m which he came up with last year.

The Punjab shot-putter cleared 19.96m in his first and fourth attempts before coming up with a huge throw of 20.75m in his fifth and penultimate throw.

China’s Liu Yang took the silver with a best throw of 19.52m while Ivan Ivanov of Kazakhstan won the bronze with 19.40m.