As he completed his second throw at the 25 th Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok on Friday, Tajinderpal Singh Toor felt the old groin pain returning to haunt him.
The groin injury had forced Asian record-holder Toor to pull out of the last year’s Oregon World Championships amd the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and he was very worried.
Toor could manage just two throws today and fortunately, his second effort– a 20.23m effort – was good enough to see him to retain his gold.
“I felt the groin pain the day I arrived in Bangkok, during my first training session. I took treatment but the pain cropped up again today. It aggravated after the second throw and I couldn’t continue,” said the 28-year-old, also the Asian Games champion.
READ | Parul Chaudhary wins gold in 3000m steeplechase, Shaili jumps for silver
“I had the pain before the recent inter-State Nationals (in Bhubaneswar) too and I had recovered after that.”
India won another gold, through Parul Chaudhary who played a patient waiting game in the women’s 3000m steeple chase while young long jumper Shaili Singh brought a silver from her first outing at a major outdoor championship.
Parul shadowed Japan’s Chikako Mori and Reimi Yoshimura for a major part of the race and gained the lead with about 600m to the finish. She extended the lead in the last lap and won by an impressive margin.
“I could have clocked a faster time but the race was a bit slow,” said Parul, after winning her maiden Asian title.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Shaili, the 2021 under-20 Worlds silver medallist, was in the lead midway through the long jump with her opening effort of 6.54m. But the seasoned Japanese Sumire Hata grabbed the lead and the gold with a 6.74m in her fourth round and then finished with a mighty 6.97m that bettered her personal best by 22cm in just about two months.
“I was not very comfortable on the runway, I couldn’t get a proper rhythm,” explained Shaili.
Later Singapore’s Veronica Shanti Pereira, who has been on a national record-breaking spree this year, stunned everybody by emerging as the championships’ fastest woman in an Asia-leading time of 11.20s. It was Singapore’s first-ever gold in a sprint event at the Asians.
There were no such surprises in the men’s section where Japan’s Hiroki Yanagita, this year’s Asian leader, won the 100m.
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