Heptathlete Swapna, mixed relay team win silver

Doha, April 23

Asian Games gold medallist heptathlete Swapna Barman and the 4x400m mixed relay team clinched a silver each while Sanjivani Jadhav won the bronze in 10,000m race on the third day of the Asian Athletics Championships.

The 22-year-old Barman logged 5993 aggregate points from the seven events to finish second behind Ekaterina Vornina (6198 points) of Uzbekistan, while Purnima Hembram, the other Indian in the fray, was fifth with 5528 points.

Barman’s aggregate points on Tuesday was more than the 5942 she had logged while winning the gold in the last edition in 2017 but was less than the 6026 she had accumulated in the Asian Games in Jakarta last year. In the 4x4000m mixed relay team which was introduced for the first time in this championship, the Indian quartet of Mohammed Anas, MR Poovamma, VK Vismaya and Arokia Rajiv clocked 3:16.47 to finish second, behind Bahrain. 

Sanjivani wins bronze

The 22-year-old Sanjivani won the last medal of the day for India as she clocked a personal best time of 32 min, 44.96s to finish third behind Bahrain's Shitaye Habtegebrel (31:15.62) and Japan's Hitomi Niiya (31:22.63). In the women’s 4x100m relay, India finished fourth with the quartet of Dutee Chand, Archana Suseentra, Revathi Veeramani and Kunnath Ranga clocking 43.81s. 

Dutee in 200m final

Dutee Chand ran the 200m heats and qualified for the final. She won her heat in 23.33s. 3000m steeplechase runner Parul Choudhary clocked a personal best of 10:03.43 to finish fifth in the final. In the men’s 1500m race, Ajay Kumar Saroj qualified for the final after clocking 3 min, 49.20s in the heats. Jinson Johnson pulled out of the 1500m race due to an injury. “His left calf muscle is troubling him at the moment. Doctors have advised him not to compete in such a situation,” deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair said. — PTI