YOUNG shooter Esha Singh’s tenacity fetched her a silver in the women’s individual 25m pistol, while distance runner Gulveer Singh’s rampaging form translated into another secondplace finish on a rain-soaked day dotted with many missed opportunities and some surprises for India at the Asian Games in Nagoya. Gulveer, who has already claimed the 10,000m silver, added another one to his kitty with a personal best timing of 3:36.72sec in the men’s 1500m competition. This was after 21- year-old Esha survived five shootoffs to clinch perhaps the most hard-fought silver of her career. Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar secured silver medal in the men’s long jump event. The 27-year-old from Palakkad, who had won a silver medal at the last edition in Hangzhou and at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, produced a best effort of 8.07m in his second attempt to move into medal contention. The Indian duo of Yashvir Singh and RohitYadav produced superb efforts to secure the silver and bronze medals respectively as the country registered a double podium finish in the men’s javelin throw competition. Yashvir, the 24-year-old from Haryana, came up with a personal best of 85.72m in his sixth and last attempt to surpass fellow Indian Rohit Yadav and claim the silver medal. Rohit, the 25-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, threw the javelin at 84.35m to bag the bronze medal.

 

Yashvir had won a bronze medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games this year, but Rohit Yadav could not finish on the podium there. Long-distance runner Parul Chaudhary could not defend her gold but continued India’s medal-winning run with a bronze in the women’s 5000m final. The 31-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, who had won gold at Hangzhou in 2023, clocked 15:14.61 to finish third behind gold medallist Winfred Yavi of Bahrain (15:10.18) and silver medallist Nozomi Tanaka of Japan (15:11.65). It was Chaudhary’s second medal of the Games, following her bronze in the women’s 3000m steeplechase on Sunday. Kurash player Pincky Balhara threw up a pleasant surprise with her bronze in the -78kg category. She became a twotime Games medallist and thereby the most successful Indian kurash player at the mega-event by adding to her silver from the 2018 edition. Another brilliant performance was by Vithya Ramraj in the women’s 400m hurdles competition as she surged past the legendary PT Usha’s over four decade-old national record to claim the bronze medal. Ramraj clocked 54.75sec, bettering Usha’s 55.42sec established at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The medal haul stood at 45, including four gold, 20 silver and 21 bronze medals. The country was placed just outside the top 10, something that has remained consistent since the start of the Games.