India wins three athletics medals as injuries and near misses temper Asian Games return

India won three athletics medals at the Asian Games on September 26, but injuries, narrow misses and the loss of expected medal chances made the day a mixed one, according to Athletics Federation of India vice-president Anju Bobby George. Sawan Barwal won silver in the men’s marathon, Tajinderpal Singh Toor took silver in the men’s shot put and Prachi Chaudhary claimed bronze in the women’s 400m. George nevertheless said India had expected more gold medals.

The biggest setbacks came in the women’s 100m hurdles and men’s triple jump. Jyothi Yarraji, a silver medallist at the previous Asian Games, withdrew before her heat after experiencing pain during her warm-up, according to an AFI official. Praveen Chithravel was unable to complete his opening triple-jump attempt after appearing to suffer a leg injury.

Karthik Unnikrishnan finished sixth. George said Chithravel had been leading his group before the injury and that Yarraji had already been dealing with pain before feeling sharp discomfort. There were further near misses in the track events.

National record holder Vishal TK finished fifth in the men’s 400m final in 45.48 seconds. Parul Chaudhary placed fourth in the women’s 1500m in 4:09.46, while Pooja finished sixth in 4:16.78. Toor’s silver ended his bid for a third consecutive Asian Games gold.

Iran’s Mohammadreza Tayebi won with a Games record of 20.81 metres, while Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Tolu took bronze with 20.48m. George praised Toor for performing near his best despite rainy conditions. Rain affected the day’s field events, while George noted that five Asian Games records were broken across athletics.

For India, however, the results combined three medals with injuries to two contenders and several finishes just outside the podium.