Asian U20 Athletics Championships 2024: Indian athletes finish the competition with 30 medals, including seven gold
Indian athletes added 12 more medals on the final day of the Asian U20 Athletics Championships 2024 to end the campaign with a total of 30 medals, including seven gold, 11 silver, and 12 bronze medals.
Notably, India finished at the top spot in the medal tally. The current season’s tally is 11 medals better than the previous Championships for India as they finished at the top spot for the first time in the Championships' history.
Earlier, they secured the second spot in the 1992 and 1996 U20 Athletics Championships - their previous best. Meanwhile, China secured 29 medals, finishing at the second spot with 16 gold, 10 silver, and three bronze medals. Japan clinched the third spot with 19 medals - 7 gold, 4 silver and 8 bronze medals.
Moving into the details of the last day, the Indian women's 4x400m team secured the only gold medal of the day, clocking 3:41.50 seconds. Meanwhile, the men's team settled for the silver medal with a timing of 3:09.36 seconds.
Defending 1500m champion Laxita Vinod Sandilea secured her second medal, clinching the silver with a timing of 4:25.63 seconds. Ekta Dey also clinched her second medal (silver) after clocking 16:49.70 seconds in the 5000m event. Her colleague Sunita Devi took the bronze medal with 16:52.54 seconds.
On the other hand, Gaurav Bhaskar Bhosale secured the silver medal in the men’s 3000m event with 8:31.20 seconds while Vikas Kumar secured a bronze with 8:33.00 seconds.
Unnathi Aiyappa settled for a bronze medal in the women’s 100m hurdles with 13.65 seconds while Sabita Tappo booked the seventh spot with 14.49 seconds. Interestingly, the 4x100m relay women’s and men’s teams finished in the third spot to clinch bronze medals. Furthermore, Dev Kumar Meena grabbed the bronze medal in the pole vault with 5.10m.
A look at the final medal tally
About Asian U20 Athletics Championships
It’s important to note that a total of 60 Indian athletes - 31 men and 29 women competed at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships 2024.
The championships were also a qualifying campaign for the World U20 Athletics Championships, which will take place in Lima, Peru from August 27 to 31.
Notably, in the Asian U20 Athletics Championships 2023, India clinched 19 medals to finish at the third spot in the medal tally, behind Japan and the People’s Republic of China.