Abha Khatua equals shot put NR while winning silver, Parul and Jyothi clinch second medal

Abha Khatua equalled the women’s shot put national record of 18.06m and won silver, while Jyothi Yarraji and Parul Chaudhary clinched their second medals in the Asian Athletics Championships

File Photo: Abha Khatua equalled the women’s shot put national record of 18.06m and won silver. | Photo Credit: THE HINDU

Unheralded Abha Khatua equalled the women’s shot put national record of 18.06m while winning silver in a surprise performance, while Jyothi Yarraji and Parul Chaudhary clinched their second medals in the Asian Athletics Championships here on Sunday.

The 28-year-old Khatua made a huge improvement of nearly a metre -- 93 cm -- from her earlier lifetime best of 17.13m as she sent the 4kg iron ball to a distance of 18.06m in her fourth throw to finish second behind Song Jiayuan (18.88m) of China.

Her second-best throw of the day was 17.10m.

Veteran Manpreet Kaur, whose national record Khatua equalled on Sunday, took the bronze with a first-round throw of 17m.

Yarraji, who had become the first Indian to win a 100m hurdles gold in the Asian Championships on Thursday, added a 200m silver to her kitty with a time of 23.13 seconds.

Ace Indian long-distance runner Parul Chaudhary won her second medal of the championships with a silver in 5000m.

Chaudhary, who had won gold in the 3000m steeplechase on Friday, clocked 15 minutes 52.35 seconds to finish second behind Yuma Yamamoto (15:51.16) of Japan in the 5000m final.

The 28-year-old Chaudhary holds the 5000m national record of 15:10.35.

Ankita won the bronze in 16:03.33 as India secured two medals from the event.

In the men’s javelin throw, DP Manu added a silver with a best throw of 81.01m, while Gulveer Singh picked up a bronze in the 5000m race with a time of 13 minutes and 48.33 seconds.

Earlier, Kishan Kumar and KM Chanda ran their personal best times to win a silver medal each in the men’s and women’s 800m race respectively.

Kumar clocked 1 minute 45.88 seconds to finish second behind Abubaker H Abdalla (1:45.53) of Qatar, while Chanda crossed the finish line of the two-lap race in 2:01.58 behind MK Dissanayaka (2:00.66) of Sri Lanka.

Kumar’s earlier personal best was 1:46.17, while Chanda equalled her earlier lifetime best of 2:01.58.