Asian Athletics Indoor Championships 2024: Jyothi Yarraji breaks National Record; wins gold in 60m hurdles
The 11th edition of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships started in Tehran, Iran, on February 16, Friday. Team India has eight female and seven male athletes taking part. Notably, India’s 25-member squad in the last campaign in Astana returned with eight medals - one gold, six silvers, and one bronze.
Moving to the details of Day 1 of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2024, Team India bagged three gold medals and tops the medals tally while China, with two gold and as many silver, is the second-ranked team.
Long-distance sensation Harmilan Bains was the first athlete to open the gold tally for India as she won the women’s 1500m event with a timing of 4:29.55 seconds in the women’s 1500m final. Notably, she won the silver medals in the 800m and 1500m races at the Asian Games 2022.
Later, sprinter Jyothi Yarraji bagged the second gold medal for India, bettering her national record by clocking 8.12 seconds in the Women’s 60m hurdles.
The Asian Games 2022 silver medalist in the 100m hurdles holds the previous best timing of 8.13 seconds at the same event, which helped her finish as a runner-up.
Japan's Asuka Tereda (8.21s) and Lui Lai Yiu of Hong Kong (8:26s) finished in second and third places at the podium.
Moving forward, ace shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor secured India's third gold medal of the day, setting a new national indoor record in the shot put by recording a distance of 19.72m in his second attempt.
Five Indian athletes were on the losing side on Day 1
Shaili Singh and Nayana James, who competed in the women’s long jump final, couldn’t make it to the podium positions, registering distances of 6.27m and 6.23m respectively. They ended at the fifth and sixth positions respectively in the final standings.
Shot putter Dhanveer Singh finished at the fourth spot with 18.59m. while sprinter Tejas Ashok Shirse ended fifth with 7.80s. Ajay Kumar Saroj secured the sixth slot in the men's 1500m race with a timing of 3:52:56.