Bengaluru, June 8: Promising quartermiler Jisna Mathew won India its second gold medal at the Asian Junior Athletics Championship currently underway in Jifu, Japan on Friday (June 8).
The PT Usha protege won the 400M race with a time of 53:26. Sri Lankan athlete Dilshi Kumarasinghe clinched the silver in 54.03 while Chinese Taipei's Jui-Hsuan Yano took the last spot on the podium after clocking a time of 54.74.
Jisna Mathew of India won Gold medal in the Women 400m run with a performance of 53.26s in the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championship at Gifu Japan pic.twitter.com/kmaVQb7Lah
— Asian Athletics (@asianathletics) June 8, 2018
Jisna, who has a personal best of 52.65s, had won the senior Asian Championships bronze medal before and represented India at the IAAF World Championships in 2017. She was also part of the Indian women's 4x400m relay team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
India won three bronze medals - Karthik Kumar (Men's 10,000M, Durga Pramod (Women's 1,500M) and Ashish Bhalothia (Men's Shotput) on the second day of the meet being held at Gigu Nagaragawa Stadium.
Suo Lang Cairn of China won Gold medal in the men’s 10000m with a performance of 30:01.51s. Yuhi Nakaya of Japan won silver medal in 30:04.24s while India’s Kartik Kumar took bronze in 30:05.30s #asianjuniors #gifu #japan pic.twitter.com/vTGls5pYW9
— Asian Athletics (@asianathletics) June 8, 2018
IBRAHIM, Moaaz Mohamed S M of Qatar won Gold medal in the men’s Shot Put with a throw of 18.57m. South Korean Jinseong Yeo won silver medal with 18.25m while India’s Ashish Bhalothia of India won bronze in 18.22m #asianjuniors #gifu #japan pic.twitter.com/Y8FYFJTaLQ
— Asian Athletics (@asianathletics) June 8, 2018
It may be recalled that on the opening day, India' had won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
Ashish Jakhar created a national Under-20 record en route to clinching the men's hammer throw gold with a distance of 76.86M. The Haryana lad led an India 1-2 with Damneet Singh clinching silver with an effort of 74.08.
Triple jumper Priyadarshini Suresh (with a personal best of 13.08) and 3,000M runner Poonam Sonune (17: 03.75.) were the bronze medallists for India.
Ashih's record-breaking throw came in his second attempt. The 19-year-old, who had broken the U-20 national mark in Junior Federation Cup in April, began with a throw of 74.08 to take the lead and was assured of the gold medal when he broke the national mark in his very second attempt. Damneet began with a throw of 70.42 and maintained the 70 plus standard before hurling the hammer to his personal best distance in the last attempt.
India are fielding 30 men and 21 women, in 16 different events in the meet which concludes on Sunday (June 10).
Having finished overall third with 17 medals that included seven gold, four silver and six bronze medals at the last edition of the championships in Vietnam two years ago, India will be hopeful of improving their ranking this year.
(With inputs from Agencies and Asian Athletics).