Asian Games: Parul, Priti bag silver and bronze in 3000m steeplechase; Ancy wins silver in long jump

NEW DELHI: India's Parul Chaudhary clinched a silver medal while compatriot Priti secured a bronze in the women's 3000m steeplechase event at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Monday.

Parul claimed the silver with a timing of 9:27.63 seconds, edging out Priti, who put up a strong finish to capture the bronze with a personal best time of 9:43.32 seconds.

Unheralded Ancy Sojan also claimed a silver medal in the women's long jump while the 4x400m mixed relay team got a fortuitous upgrade to second spot due to 'lane infringement', on another eventful day.

The gold medal in the 3000m steeplechase event was claimed by Winfred Mutile Yavi of Bahrain, who set a Games record with an impressive time of 9:18.28 seconds. The previous Games record stood in the name of country-mate Jebet Ruth (9:31.36 sec) set during the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

Though Parul also breached the Asian Games record, it was nowhere close to her national record and personal best of 9:15.31 clocked at the World Championships in Budapest, which helped her qualify for the Paris Olympics, in August.

Compatriot Priti finished a good 16 seconds behind Parul, clocking a personal best 9:43.32 seconds to win the bronze in a close finish with another Bahrain runner Mekonen Tigest Getent, who timed 9:43.71 seconds to finish fourth.

Yavi began to pull away in the sixth lap of the gruelling race, making Parul look like an underpowered engine.

The Kenyan-born Bahrain runner, who won the 2023 World Athletics Championships gold in the event beating country-mate Beatrice Chepkoech, finished at least 50 metres ahead of the 28-year-old Parul.

In women's long jump, Ancy breached her personal best twice and leaped 6.63 metres to bag the silver behind Shiqi Xiong of China who jumped 6.73 metres to claim the yellow metal.

Vietnam's Nga Yan Yue won the bronze with a best effort of 6.50 metres.

In the third attempt, Ancy registered her personal best of 6.56m which she bettered in her fifth attempt.

The other Indian in the fray, Shaili Singh finished a disappointing fifth with an effort of 6.48m.

The quartet of Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Vithya Ramraj, Rajesh Ramesh and Subha Venkatesan then clocked 3:14.34 seconds in mixed team 4x400m relay to win a bronze medal. But, to their joy, the Sri Lankan quartet -- which had beaten the favourites to the second spot by a fraction of a second with a time of 3:14.25 seconds -- was disqualified due to 'lane infringement'

The gold was won by Bahrain runners, who timed 3:14.02. Following the upgrade, Kazakhstan who had finished fourth bagged the bronze, clocking a season's best of 3:24.85 seconds.

In men's 200m, India's Amlan Borgohain finished a distant sixth in 20.98 seconds.

The gold was won by Japan's Koki Ueyama in 20.60 seconds, which was way below the Asian Games record of 20.14 seconds set in Incheon by Qatar's Femi Ogunode.

Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Abdullah Abkar clinched the silver medal with a time of 20.63, while the bronze went to Chinese Taipei's Yang Chun-Han who clocked 20.74 seconds.

(With inputs from PTI)