India added six more medals to their tally at the Asian Athletics Championships 2025 on Thursday, taking their total haul to 14. The day’s events saw Indian athletes clinch three golds, two silvers, and a bronze.
Olympians Avinash Sable and Jyothi Yarraji led the charge, each claiming gold in their respective events. Sable triumphed in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, while Yarraji crossed the finish line first in the women’s 100m hurdles.
In another standout performance, the Indian women’s 4x400m relay team successfully defended their title, securing yet another gold for the country, as reported by Olympics.com.
India’s strong showing continues to solidify their position as a dominant force in the continental athletics arena.
Sable, who secured the silver medal in the Asian Athletics Championships 2019, secured the gold six years later with a season’s best timing of 8:20.92, with the rest of the podium completed by Japan’s Yutaro Niinae (8:24.41) and Qatar’s Zakaria Elahlaami (8:27.12).
The current Asian Games champion Sable is the first Indian to secure a 3000 m men’s steeplechase gold at the Asian Athletics Championships after 36 years, with the first being the Arjuna Award recipient Deena Ram back in 1989.
Jyothi backed the second gold of the day, successfully defending her women’s 100m hurdles title by clocking a new championship record time of 12.96 seconds. The second and third spots were taken by Japan’s Yumi Tanaka and China’s Wu Yanni with the times of 13.07 (.061) and 13.07(.068), respectively.
The Indian quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha and Subha Venkatesan bagged the women’s 4x400m relay gold with season-best timings of 3:34.18.
This was India’s first gold medal in the category since 2013 when the quartet of Nirmala Sheoran, Tintu Luka, Anu Mariam Jose and Poovamma Raju Machettira finished on top of the podium in Balewadi, Pune.
Rupal and Subha helped India in defending their mixed 4x400m relay team title on Wednesday. However, the men’s 4x400m relay team bagged a silver after the grouping of Jay Kumar, Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil Saji, and Vishal TK clocked the timing of 3:03.67., The gold medal went to Qatar with timings of 3:03.5,2 and China landed the bronze after clocking 3:03.73.
In the women’s long jump event, two Indian athletes made it to the podium as Asian Games runners-up Ancy Sojan (6.33 m) got the silver medal and the Asian Championships silver medalist Shaili Singh (6.30 m) got the bronze. Ancy’s third jump gave her the medal, while Shaili’s first attempt gave her the bronze. Iran’s Reihaneh Mobini Arani took home the gold with a 6.40 m jump.
(With inputs from news agency ANI)
