Nagoya, Sep 28 (IANS) Vithya Ramraj broke a 42-year-old record in the women’s 400m hurdles for a bronze medal; Parul Chaudhary and Gulveer Singh won their second medals while Yash Vir Singh and Rahul Yadav secured a double podium as India had a great day in track and field competitions at the Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya on Monday.
Parul Chaudhary added the women’s 5000m bronze to the women’s 3000m steeplechase, and Gulveer won the men’s 1500m silver to add to the medal of the same colour he won in the men’s 10,000m, while Murali Sreeshankar jumped to a silver medal despite a debilitating injury that made him forego his last two rounds and an opportunity to fight for gold.
There were opportunities for more medals as the women’s 4x100m relay team made a dramatic comeback to qualify for the final. Tamanna, Sneha SS, Sudeshna Shivankar, and Abinaya Rajarajan clocked a season-best 43.65 seconds to win Heat 2, securing the third-fastest overall time.
The quartet was trailing in 4th to 5th position going into the final stages of the relay before turning things around with a sensational finish.
However, the day belonged to Vithya Ramraj as she came up with a brilliant performance to break the national record in the women’s 400m hurdles on Monday.
Vithya Ramraj produced a landmark performance at the Asian Games 2026 on Monday, breaking the 42-year-old national record held by legendary Indian athlete PT Usha to win bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles.
Vithya clocked a personal best of 54.75 seconds to finish third in a thrilling final, improving the previous national benchmark of 55.42 seconds by 0.67 seconds. The record had been set by Usha at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where she finished fourth in the Olympic final.
Vithya had previously equalled Usha’s mark at the 2023 Asian Games, where she also won bronze. Three years later, she finally moved beyond the mark that had stood as one of the longest-standing records in Indian athletics.
The Indian was firmly in medal contention through the race and held her position in the closing stages, but could not match the late surge of Mariam Kareem of the United Arab Emirates. Kareem stormed to gold in a Games-record 54.31s, while Kazakhstan’s Adelina Zems secured silver with a personal best of 54.58s.
India secured a silver-bronze double in the men’s javelin throw at the Asian Games 2026 on Monday, with Yash Vir Singh and Rohit Yadav finishing second and third, respectively, at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.
Yash Vir achieved a personal best of 85.72 metres to win the silver medal, whereas Rohit secured bronze with a throw of 84.35 metres. Sri Lanka’s World No. 1 Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage took home gold with a best throw of 88.55m. Reigning Olympic champion, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, finished fourth with a throw of 80.29 metres.
The result meant India won two medals in the men’s javelin at the Asian Games for the second successive edition. At Hangzhou 2023, Neeraj Chopra won gold with 88.88m, while Kishore Jena took silver with 87.54m.
Neeraj, who had also won gold at Jakarta 2018, couldn’t defend his title in Japan as he had pulled out of the remainder of the season after the Diamond League in Doha due to injury.
Parul added another bronze medal to her Asian Games campaign, finishing third in the women’s 5000m final with a time of 15:14.61 to claim her second podium finish.
Parul timed her run to perfection in a closely fought battle for the minor medals, producing a strong finishing kick in the closing stages to move past Kazakhstan’s Norah Tanui and secure third place. Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi won the gold medal, while Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka took silver.
The Indian had remained within touching distance of the leading group for much of the race despite a fast early pace. Tanui initially took control and opened up a sizeable gap over the rest of the field, with Yavi settling into the chasing pack.
Gulveer Singh, after a remarkable second-place finish in the 10000m event, added another silver medal to his kitty on Monday, this time from the men’s 1500m at the ongoing Asian Games 2026.
Gulveer displayed a dominant run to finish second in the 1500m race with a personal best time of 3:36.72 as he sandwiched the two Japanese runners – Kazuto Iizawa and Nagiya Mori – at the podium. Iizawa clinched the gold with an Asian Games record time of 3:36.35, only 0.37s ahead of Gulveer, while Mori was third with a time of 3:37.92s.
Meanwhile, India’s Avinash Sable failed to bag a medal in the men’s 3000m steeplechase final as he finished fourth. Sable produced his season’s best time of 8:21.67, but was 4.31s behind the gold medal winner Ryuji Miura of Japan. Another Japanese, Ryoma Aoki, was second with a run of 8:17.60s, while Qatar’s Zakaria Elahlaami was third with a time of 8:18.13s.
Murali Sreeshankar was the braveheart of the day, securing a silver medal despite a serious injury to his foot that had him limping after his second attempt in the men’s long jump final.
Murali Sreeshankar produced a gutsy performance to win silver in the men’s long jump at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, overcoming severe pain from an ankle injury to finish with a best effort of 8.07m.
Sreeshankar, who won silver in the Hangzhou edition, registered his best jump on the second attempt to move into second place and stayed there until the end of the competition. China’s Shi Yuhao won gold with a season-best 8.17m, while Uzbekistan’s Anvar Anvarov secured bronze with 8.06m.
The Indian appeared in control of his challenge for a medal until the fourth round, when he suffered a heavy landing after slipping off the mark. He immediately showed signs of discomfort and removed his spikes before medics advised him to have the ankle assessed.
Sreeshankar, however, was unwilling to surrender his position in the competition. Despite the pain, he remained on the field and eventually opted to skip his fifth and sixth attempts and secured a morale-boosting silver as the other athletes in contention were unable to better his best effort of 8.07m.
–IANS
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