"The pain aggravated after the second throw" - Tajinderpal Singh Toor relives excruciating title defence at Asian Athletics Championships

India’s defending champion in men’s shot put, Tajinderpal Singh Toor overcome niggle to clinch the gold medal in the ongoing 25th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok on Friday.

The 28-year-old Asian Games champion started his gold medal hunt with an opening throw of 19.80m, while his second attempt of 20.23m was good enough to fetch him the gold medal.

Asian Record Holder @Tajinder_Singh3 becomes the latest entrant of 🇮🇳's Gold Medal Club at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 🥳

The #TOPSchemeAthlete produced a throw of 20.23m in Men's Shot Put Final Event & secured 🥇for 🇮🇳

Well done Champion! Keep making 🇮🇳 proud 🥳👏 https://t.co/KGp3SkFQzA

Toor, however, wasn’t able to build on his 20.23m throw as the groin injury aggravated. He didn’t attempt the remaining four throws. In the medal round, all the competitors get six throws.

“I wasn't able to fully recover from the groin injury sustained during a practice session. The pain aggravated after the second throw and I couldn’t continue,” the two-time Asian champion said. “I got injured three days prior to the competition and never got enough time to recover.”

Toor’s gold-medal winning performance at the 2019 edition of the Asian championships in Doha was 20.22m. His personal and season best of 21.77m was recorded last month in Bhubaneswar in the domestic meeting.

Meanwhile, a strong finishing kick enabled Parul Chaudhary to win India’s second gold of the day in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.

"My target was to come first and I’m feeling good,” Parul said in the post-race interaction. “Since my rivals didn’t pose any challenge during the race, I couldn’t improve my time.”

On the other hand, it was heartbreak for Priti Lamba as she narrowly missed a bronze medal in the steeplechase. Japan’s Remi Yoshimura edged out Priti at the tape by clocking 9:48.48 seconds. Priti’s time was 9:48:50 seconds

In the men’s steeplechase, India’s Bal Kishan finished fourth (8:46.98 secs), while Mohd Nur Hasan didn't finish the race.

India’s 19-year-old long jumper Shaili Singh won silver with a distance of 6.54m behind Japanese Sumire Hata (Japan), whose best jump of the day was 6.97m

“After a good opening jump, I wasn’t able to build on my successive jumps due to lack of good rhythm,” Shaili said after winning silver.

In heptathlon, Swapna Barman was placed at the second spot with 3,392 points, while Ekaterina Voronina of Uzbekistan was leading the eight-member field with a score of 3448 after four events on Day 1 of the competition.

Results

Men

3000m steeplechase: Ryoma Aoki (Japan) 8:34.91, Yaser Salem Bagharab (Qatar) 8:37.11, Seiya Sunada (Japan) 8:39.17, Bal Kishan (India) 8:46.98 secs---fourth.

Shot put: Tajinderpal Singh Toor (India) 20.23m, Mehdi Saberi (Iran) 19.98m), Ivanov Ivan (Kazakhstan) 19.87m

Women

3000m steeplechase: Parul Chaudhary (India) 9:38.76, Xu Shuangshuang (China) 9:44.54, Reimi Yoshimura (Japan) 9:48.48, Priti Lamba (India) 9:48.50--fourth.

Long jump: Sumire Hata (Japan) 6.97m, Shaili SIngh (India) 6.54m, Zhong Jiawei (China) 6.46m, Ancy Sojan (India) 6.41m---fourth.