Yarraji and Sable claim gold at Asian Athletics Championships

India's fastest woman hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and national record-holding steeplechase runner Avinash Sable came up with stupendous performances to win gold medals in their respective events at the 26th Asian Athletics Championships

Gumi (South Korea): India’s fastest woman hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and national record-holding steeplechase runner Avinash Sable came up with stupendous performances to win gold medals in their respective events at the 26th Asian Athletics Championships here on Thursday.

On his way to victory with a season-best performance, Sable became the first Indian man in 36 years to win a gold medal in steeplechase at the Asian Championships.

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Soon after, Jyothi produced a late burst to clinch her second straight gold medal in this competition with a new championship record of 12.96 seconds. The previous record was 13.04 seconds, achieved by Kazakhstan’s Olga Shishigina in 1998 and Sun Yawei of China in 2011.

Sable clocked 8:20.92sec to claim the top honour, which is also his second Asian medal after a silver in the 2019 edition. It was, however, nowhere close to his national record of 8:09.91sec achieved in 2024.

The last time India won a gold in this event was way back in 1989 when Dina Ram finished on top.

Harbel Singh was the first Indian to fetch a men’s steeplechase gold at the showpiece back in 1975.

In the 2023 edition, Jyothi won the gold medal with an effort of 13.09. But her personal best timing, which is also the national record, is a way better 12.78 seconds.

Jyothi, an Asian Games silver-medallist, nonetheless joined a select club of five athletes to defend gold in the Asian Championships 100m hurdles, the others being Emi Akimoto of Japan (1979, 1981, 1983), Zhang Yu of China (1991, 1993), Su Yinping of China (2003, 2005) and Sun Yawei of China (2009, 2011).

Moments before Jyothi’s triumph, Sable lived up to the favourite tag with some ease to consolidate the country’s position in the 26th edition of the continental tournament.

Japan’s Yutaro Niinae, who clinched the silver with 8:24.41 sec, was leading at the start of the final lap, but the Indian ace produced a brilliant effort to go past him and claim the top prize.

The Hangzhou Asian Games gold-medallist continued to stay ahead of the pack with four laps to g,o but he had two Japanese athletes following him closely.

Niinae overtook Sable with three laps remaining, but the Indian had the last laugh. Qatar’s Zakaria Elahlaami took the bronze after clocking 8:27.12sec. Earlier in the day, India’s 4x400m men’s relay team, comprising Rince

Joseph, Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil Saji, and Mohit Kumar stormed into the final with their best-ever effort to top the heat on Thursday.

The quartet will start from lane five in the final after clocking 3:06.28 sec. In the heats, India outpaced China (3:06.79) and hosts Korea (3:10.05) to secure direct qualification.

The final lineup includes strong contenders like Sri Lanka, China, and Kazakhstan, with Sri Lanka boasting the season’s fastest of 3:01.56.

In the women’s 10,000m final, India’s Sanjeevani Jadhav clocked a season’s best of 33:08.17 sec, finishing fifth, followed closely by Seema in sixth at 33:08.23 sec.

The event was dominated by Daisy Jepkemei of Kazakhstan (30:48.44), ahead of Japan’s Ririrak Hironika (30:56.32) and Mikuni Yada (31:12.21).