Astana (Kazakhstan): India’s Jyothi Yarraji and Jeswin Aldrin continued their national record-breaking spree and won silver medals in women’s 60m hurdles and men’s long jump, respectively, at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2023, here on Sunday.
Jyothi Yarraji completed her race in 8.13s — 0.03s faster than her previous record. Yarraji, who also holds the national record in the outdoor women’s 100m hurdles event, had topped the qualification on Saturday with a timing of 8.16s.
In the final, however, Japan’s Masumi Aoki, who barely made it to the final after clocking 8.51s to finish eighth in the qualification, stormed ahead to claim the gold in 8.01s. Chen Jiamin of China came third in 8.15s.
This was the fifth time since January that Jyothi Yarraji set India’s national record in women’s 60m hurdles.
In the men’s long jump, Jeswin Aldrin fetched a silver medal for India with a new national indoor record of 7.97m. He eclipsed his own national record of 7.93m set on Friday in the qualification round, an olympics.com report said.
Jeswin Aldrin took the early lead in the final with an impressive 7.97m jump on his second attempt. However, Aldrin fouled on his next three attempts which allowed Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Tang to take the pole position with an effort of 8.02m.
A 7.82 leap on the last try by Aldrin meant the Indian athlete had to settle for silver.
The women’s long jump event for India saw the U20 world championships silver medallist Shaili Singh finish fifth with a best attempt of 6.27m on her third attempt. Uzbekistan’s Darya Reznichenko claimed bronze with an effort of 6.37m.
Women’s high jumper Abhinaya Shetty, with a best jump of 1.75m, finished seventh in the eight-woman final.
Later in the day, Siva Subramani, India’s national record holder in the men’s pole vault, cleared 5.15m in his second attempt but could not go further. Prashant Kanhiya ended with NM (no mark) after failing to clear his first challenge of 4.80m.
High jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare claimed the sixth position in the final with an effort of 2.20m.
With two medals on the final day of the competition, India concluded the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2023 with eight medals – one gold, six silvers and one bronze. Tajinderpal Singh Toor won India’s only gold medal at the competition in men’s shot put.
–IANS