INDIAN ATHLETES CONTINUE MEDAL RUN

 

 

 

OLYMPIC champion Neeraj Chopra became only the second man in Asian Games history to defend his gold with a season’s best effort of 88.88m in the javelin throw event marred by controversy here on Wednesday. The 25-year-old Chopra sent his spear to 88.88m, his fourth career-best throw, in his fourth effort to clinch the gold. He had won a gold in the 2018 Asian Games with a throw of 88.06m. Chopra’s compatriot Kishore Jena took the silver with a throw of 87.54m in a 1-2 finish for India. Jena thus also sealed his berth for the Paris Olympics.

 

The qualification mark was 85.50. The men’s 4x400m relay team of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh won the gold for the first time after 61 years with a time of 3:01.58. On the javelin field, a huge controversy erupted during Chopra’s event when his first attempt was not measured, prompting legendary Anju Bobby George to accuse the Chinese officials of “trying to cheat” and “deliberately targeting the Indians”.

 

It seemed Chopra had comfortably cleared the 85m mark but to his surprise the effort was not recorded by the officials apparently because they could not spot the landing point of his javelin at the ‘Big Lotus’ stadium. India lost the crown in women’s 4x400m relay after five successive gold medals from 2002 to 2018 Asian Games as the quartet of Aishwarya Mishra, Subha Venkatesan, Prachi and Vithya Ramraj finished second behind Bahrain with a time of 3:27.85. Armyman Sable, who clocked 13:21.09, even saluted after crossing the finish line. With the seven medals India won in the last day of track and field competitions, India ended their Hangzhou Asian Games athletics competition with 29 medals, the second best after the 34 in the inaugural 1961 edition. India won 20 medals in the 2018 Asian Games.