Tejaswin Shankar's gold powers India to 6th at Asian Indoor Athletics

Tejaswin Shankar clinched a gold medal in the heptathlon at the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in China, setting a new national record with 5993 points. India finished sixth overall with five medals.

India's 27-year-old Tejaswin Shankar added glittering gold to the Indian medal tally on the final day of the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tianjin, China, on Sunday. The Indian contingent, with five medals, one of them gold, finished overall sixth in the medal tally. China topped the chart with 34 medals, 10 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze, according to a release.

On his way to winning the gold medal in the heptathlon, Shankar scored 5993 points, surpassing his own national mark of 5650 set in 2021 in the USA. Pooja (high jump--silver), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (shot put--silver) and Ancy Sojan (long jump--bronze) were other medal winners on Sunday. On opening day on Friday, India's high jumper Aadrash Ram Jothi Shankar won bronze.

Shankar's Record-Breaking Heptathlon Gold

Shankar was leading Day One of the heptathlon. He continued his good form in the next three events---60m hurdles, pole vault and 1000m---in that order--to earn as many as 5993 points, a personal best and national record.

In the 60m hurdles, Shankar clocked a time of 8.02 seconds to earn 977 points. With two events to go, the Indian athlete was nearly 485 points ahead of his nearest rival.

Shankar was fourth in pole vault with a height of 4.20m. He earned 673 points to increase his tally to 5163 points.

In the last event of the day--1000m---Shankar finished second with a time of 2:43.91 (830 points) to increase his total to 5993 points.

Shankar also holds the national decathlon (outdoor) record of 7826 points set last year in Poland. He also won silver in the decathlon at the 2022 Asian Games held in China.

Silver and Bronze Bolster India's Tally

Tajinderpal Singh Toor Wins Shot Put Silver

In the men's shot put, Tajinderpal Singh Toor claimed silver with a season-best throw of 20.05m. Toor's other legal throws were 19.49m and 19.85m. His last two attempts were no marks.

China's Chengyu Chen took the gold with a throw of 20.07m. Samardeep Singh Gill, the second Indian in the field, finished fifth with a throw of 18.97m.

Pooja Clinches High Jump Silver

In the women's high jump, India's dependable athlete--Pooja--clinched silver with a height of 1.87m. Uzbekistan's Valeriya Gorbatova was first with a similar height of 1.87m.

Pooja and Valeriya were unable to raise the bar, failing to clear 1.90m in all three attempts.

Ancy Sojan Takes Long Jump Bronze

Ancy Sojan added bronze to the Indian medal tally at the long jump arena. Her best jump on Sunday was 6.21m. Her other two legal jumps were 6.02m and 6.20m.

It was 1-2 for Chinese jumpers in the women's group. Shiqi Xiong won gold with a jump of 6.42m. Xiong's compatriot Zhishuang Li was the winner of silver with a distance of 6.39m.

Other Indian Performances

India's Moumita Mondal finished sixth in women's long jump with a distance of 6.01m. Moumita finished eighth in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.40 seconds.

It wasn't Pragyan Prasanti Sahu's day as she wasn't able to advance to the 60m hurdles final despite clocking a personal best of 8.46 seconds in her heat.

Promising long jumper Shahnawaz Khan missed out on a medal as he finished fourth in the men's group. (ANI)

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