Asian Athletics Championships: India bag six medals on final day, finish with 24

India concluded the 26th Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea on Saturday with a total of 24 medals, including 8 gold, 10 silver, and 6 bronze medals. The final day saw Indian athletes secure three silver and three bronze medals, along with a new national record and multiple personal bests, though gold medals remained elusive.Parul Chaudhary secured her second silver medal of the championships in the women's 5000m with a time of 15:15.33s, adding to her earlier silver in the 3000m steeplechase. The women's 4x100m relay team, comprising Abinaya Rajarajan, Sneha SS, Srabani Nanda, and Nithya Gandhe, earned a silver medal with a season-best time of 43.86s.Sprinter Animesh Kujur set a new national record in the men's 200m, clocking 20.32s to win bronze, marking India's first medal in this event since Dharambir Singh's bronze in 2015. In the javelin throw event, Sachin Yadav claimed silver with a personal best of 85.16m in his final attempt. Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem won gold with an 86.40m throw in his first competition since the 2024 Paris Games.Yashvir Singh, another Indian javelin thrower, achieved a personal best of 82.57m to finish fifth. Sachin, who hails from a farmer's family in Khekra village near Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, improved upon his previous personal best of 84.39m. Pooja secured a bronze in the women's 800m with a personal best time of 2:01.89s.Asian Games bronze medalist Vithya Ramraj earned bronze in the women's 400m hurdles with a time of 56.46s. China's Mo Jiadie won gold in 55.31s, followed by Bahrain's Oluwakemi Adekoya at 55.32s. Fellow Indian Anu Raghavan finished seventh with 57.46s.In the women's 200m final, Jyoti Yarraji, who had earlier won gold in the 100m hurdles, finished fifth with 23.47s, while Nithya Gandhe came seventh with 23.90s. The men's 800m event saw Indians Krishan Kumar and Anu Kumar finish seventh and eighth respectively.While India's overall medal count fell short of the 27 medals won in the previous edition, the gold medal tally improved from 6 to 8.