Asian Athletics Championship: India’s Abhishek Pal wins bronze in 10000m walk | More sports News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Abhishek Pal made a significant contribution to India’s medal tally by securing a bronze medal on the opening day of competitions at the Asian Athletics Championships.
The 25-year-old athlete from the Indian army exhibited great determination, clocking an impressive time of 29 minutes 33.26 seconds in the men’s 25-lap race.
Pal’s strong finish propelled him across the finish line in third place, surpassing the fatigued Japanese runner Yuto Imae, who settled for fourth position.
In challenging hot and humid conditions, the athletes embarked on a grueling battle, with the frontrunner Ren Tazawa from Japan steadily maintaining his lead throughout the race. Tazawa claimed the gold medal with an impressive time of 29 minutes 18.44 seconds. Meanwhile, Shadrack Kimutai Koech from Kazakhstan secured the silver medal, completing the race in 29 minutes 31.63 seconds.

While Pal’s performance brought the first medal for the Indian contingent on Wednesday, experienced javelin thrower Annu Rani narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth with a throw of 59.10 meters. Similarly, middle-distance runner Lili Das couldn’t secure a podium finish in the women’s 1500m, concluding her race in seventh place with a time of 4 minutes 27 seconds.
“I saw Imae slowing down in the last two laps. I gradually tracked him down and pushed hard in the last 400m to win bronze,” Pal said in the post race interaction.
“The weather was okay at the start of the race, but was unbearable in the second half.”
The two Japanese in the race had sub 28 minutes to their credit. But local weather conditions took its toll on the competitors.
It was a sweet victory for Pal as he had finished seventh in the 10,000m at the 2019 Doha edition of the Asian Athletics Championships in Qatar.
“The bronze in the 10,000m has added to my confidence. I should do better in the 5,000m race,” Pal added.
Expectations were high in the women’s javelin throw but experienced Annu Rani came up with a series of 55.31m, 58.70m, 59.10m, x, 58.46m and 58.29m to miss out of a medal.
Annu had won silver (60.22m) at the 2019 Asian championship in Doha. Japan’s Marina Saito won gold with a throw of 61.67m, while Liu Shiying of China clinched silver with a throw of 61.51m.
Sri Lanka’s Nadeesha Dilhani won bronze with a throw of 60.93m.
In the women’s 1500m, India’s Lili Das finished seventh with a time of 4:27.61. It was 1-2 for Japan in the 1500m. Nozomi Tanaka won gold with a time of 4:06.75 seconds, while compatriot Yume Goto clocked 4:13.25 to win silver. Gayanthika Thushari of Sri Lanka took home bronze with a time of 4:18.84.
Indian quarter-milers gave a good account of themselves in the preliminary rounds of the 400m.

Aishwarya Misha clocked 53.58 seconds to win her heat and advance to the final scheduled for Thursday.
Rajesh Ramesh (45.91 secs) and Muhammad Ajmal (45.75 secs) were impressive in the men’s 400m semis on Wednesday. Both have qualified for the final.
In decathlon, Tejaswin Shankar was leading the field on day-one with 4124 points.
(With inputs from PTI)