India finish third in Asian Junior Athletics Championship

Bengaluru, June 11: India finished third overall at the 19th Asian Junior Athletic Championship which concluded at the Gigu Nagaragawa Stadium in Gifu, Japan.

India won five gold medals, two silver and 10 bronze for an overall tally of 17, which levelled their best-ever performance in the previous edition held at Vietnam two years ago.

Hosts Japan won the championship while China finished second overall.

With 5 Gold, 2 Silver and 10 Bronze, India have finished at the podium on 3rd position at 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Gifu, Japan. Host Japan finished first while China finished second. Well done. #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/CI9RRiSExU

— Sports & Youth Dept. (@sports_odisha) June 10, 2018

On the concluding day of the four-day meet, India added two more gold medals.

Tamil Nadu triple jumper K Kamalraj overcame an injury scare to clinch the yellow metal with an effort of 15. 75M in his first attempt itself.

Kamalraj with his Gold medal in the triple jump at Asian Junior Athletics Championship Gifu @afiindia pic.twitter.com/UQDGk8BAZ1

— Rahul PAWAR (@rahuldpawar) June 10, 2018

Kamalraj, who has a personal best 16.41M and has already qualified for the Under-20 World Championships to be held in Tampere, Finland from July 10 to 15, tried to raise the bar further and went for 16 plus, but a severe pain in his ankle put paid to his plans and his jump was declared as a foul.

"I felt pain right from the first jump. Now, the doctors have told me to take a week's rest," said the Tirupur-based triple jumper, who is currently trained by national jumps coach Bedros Bedrosian,

"My body was in top shape here. I was definitely hoping to cross 16.50M and break the National record (Arpinder Singh's 16.45m), now I feel very bad, very sad," Kamalraj added.

Later Ajit Kumar clinched the 5,000M gold to add to India's tally. The Allahabad-based long-distance runner clocked a personal best 14:15.24s.

Ajeet Kumar, crossing finish line in the men's 5000m ( 14:15.24s) on the first place #asianjuniors #gifu @afiindia pic.twitter.com/mdzJJBCddK

— Rahul PAWAR (@rahuldpawar) June 10, 2018

Earlier, had clocked a personal best in the 1,500M, but that could fetch him only a sixth- place finish.

Jisna Mathew, who won the 400M gold

There was more glory for Jisna as she was part of the 4x400M quartet - the others being Subha Venkatesan, Nidhi Yogendra and Rachana - who won silver.

However, the team relay quartet could not defend the gold which they won in Vietnam in 2016. That honour went to the hosts Japan.

PT Usha protege Jisna still emerged as the find of the championship with a gold, silver and bronze in her kitty.

(With Asian Athletics inputs).