Asian Championships: Abhishek edges Yuto to win bronze, Annu finishes fourth

Japan’s Marina Saito pulled off what is probably the opening day’s biggest upset, shocking China’s Olympic champion Liu Shiying for the women’s javelin throw gold.

Abhishek Pal won the bronze at the 25th Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok. | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K | The Hindu

The Japanese are the kings of distance running in Asia. They are so strong that they occupy 98 of the top 100 rungs in this year’s men’s 10,000m Asian list.

But Abhishek Pal, who is in the 189th spot on the list and who could not even win gold in the 10,000m in the recent Federation Cup and the Inter-State Nationals, came up with some fine end-game heroics to outwit Japan’s Yuto Imae and take the bronze at the 25th Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok on Wednesday.

It was India’s first medal at these Asians and Abhishek’s first major international medal too. Federation Cup champion Gulveer Singh, who had beaten Abhishek twice this season, finished fifth in the event where Japan’s Asian leader Ren Tazawa came with a fine piece of front running to take the gold.

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“I saw Imae slowing down in the last two laps. I gradually tracked him down and pushed hard in the last 400m to win bronze,” said Abhishek. “The weather was okay at the start of the race but was unbearable in the second half”.

Japan’s Marina Saito pulled off what is probably the opening day’s biggest upset, shocking China’s Olympic champion Liu Shiying for the women’s javelin throw gold.

Annu Rani, silver medallist at the last Asians in Doha who was forced to break her training in Germany and miss competitions in Europe this season over visa issues, finished fourth.

Meanwhile Tejaswin Shankar, the high jump national record-holder, was in the lead in the decathlon after the opening day’s events. Shankar, who topped the 400m (49.57s), long jump (7.48m) and high jump (2.14m), had a 100-point advantage over Thailand’s Suttisak Singkhon, the 2018 Asian Games silver medallist and 2017 Asian champion.

Rajesh, Ajmal and Aishwarya in 400m Final

And in the 400m, Rajesh Ramesh (45.91s) and Muhammed Ajmal (45.76) in the men’s section and Aishwarya Mishra (53.58s) in women’s qualified for the final.

But there was some disappointment in the women’s 1500m where Lili Das, who has a personal best of 4:12.57s (2022) and a season best of 4:14.16s, finished seventh in 4:27.61s.

The results (medallists and Indian performances):

Men: 10,000m: 1. Ren Tazawa (Jpn) 29:18.44s, 2. Shadrack Kumutai Koech (Kaz) 29:31.63, 3. Abhishek Pal (Ind) 29:33.26. 5. Gulveer Singh (Ind) 29:53.69.

4x100m relay: 1. Thailand (38.55s), 2. China (38.87), 3. Korea (38.99).

Women: 1500m: 1. Tanaka Nozomi (Jpn) 4:06.75s MR, OR 4:12.69, 2. Goto Yume (Jpn) 4:13.25, 3. Aberathna Gayanthika (Sri) 4:14.39. 7. Lili Das (Ind) 4:27.61.

4x100m relay: 1. China (43.35s), 2. Japan (43.95), 3. Thailand (44.56).

Triple jump: 1. Mariko Morimoto (Jpn) 14.06m, 2. Rui Zeng (Chn) 14.01, 3. Thi Huong Nguyen (Vie) 13.68.

Javelin throw: 1. Marina Saito (Jpn) 61.67m, 2. Liu Shiying (Chn) 61.51, 3. Nadeesha Hatarbage (Sri) 60.93, 4. Annu Rani (Ind) 59.10.