ASTANA: Jyothi Yarraji of India and Jeswin Aldrin won silver medals in the women’s 60m hurdles and men’s long jump, respectively, at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan on Sunday.
Jyothi Yarraji completed in 8.13 seconds, 0.03 seconds faster than her previous best. Yarraji, who also holds the national record in the outdoor women’s 100m hurdles, topped qualifying on Saturday at 8.16 seconds.
Masumi Aoki of Japan, who narrowly made it to the final after clocking 8.51s to place eighth in qualification, raced ahead to win gold in 8.01s. Chen Jiamin of China finished third in 8.15 seconds as per the Olympics website.
Jyothi Yarraji set India’s national record in the women’s 60m hurdles for the fifth time since January.
Jeswin Aldrin of India won silver in the men’s long jump with a new national indoor record of 7.97m. He broke his own national record of 7.93m, which he accomplished in the qualification round on Friday.
With a spectacular 7.97m jump on his second attempt, Jeswin Aldrin seized the early lead in the final. However, Aldrin fouled on his next three attempts, allowing Lin Yu Tang of Chinese Taipei to regain the lead with an effort of 8.02m.
Aldrin had to settle for silver after a 7.82 leap on his final attempt.
Shaili Singh, India’s U20 world championships silver medalist, finished sixth in the women’s long jump event with a best performance of 6.27m on her third attempt. Darya Reznichenko of Uzbekistan won bronze with a leap of 6.37m.
Women’s high jumper Abhinaya Shetty finished seventh in the eight-woman final, with a best jump of 1.75m.
Later in the day, India’s national record holder in the men’s pole vault, Siva Subramani, cleared 5.15m in his second attempt but was unable to go any farther. Prashant Kanhiya finished with NM (no mark) after failing to clear his first 4.80m challenge.
Sarvesh Anil Kushare, a high jumper, finished sixth in the final with a jump of 2.20m.
India finished the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2023 with eight medals – one gold, six silvers, and one bronze – thanks to two medals on the final day of the competition. Tajinderpal Singh Toor won India’s only gold medal in the men’s shot put category.
India won six medals at the 2018 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, including four silvers and two bronzes. (ANI)