Abha equals shot put NR while winning silver; Parul, Jyothi win 2nd medal

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 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 3000m steeplechase on Friday, clocked 15 minute 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 men's javelin throw, DP Manu added a silver with a best throw of 81.01m while Gulveer Singh picked up a bronze in 5000m race with a time of 13 minute 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.