India win five gold on Day 2 to dominate Taiwan Open athletics

The Indian contingent won as many as five gold medals, including double podium finishes in women’s 800m final and long jump competition, on the second and final day of the Taiwan Open international athletics championship here on Sunday.

Three-time national champion Vithya Ramraj, Rohit Yadav, Pooja, Krishan Kumar and Annu Rani won the gold medal in their respective events in an impressive outing by the Indian contingent.

Yashas Palaksha rallied to win silver in the men’s 400m hurdles with a personal best timing of 42.22s, the result giving a big boost to his confidence after missing out on the 2025 Asian Championships.

Vithya clocked 56.53s to strike gold in the women’s 400m hurdles event, her third best time of the year helping the athlete to gain some useful ranking points for the upcoming World Championships.

The athlete from Tamil Nadu competes in 400 metres hurdles, 400 metres and 4×400 metres relay.

Before this, she had clocked 56.04s in the Federation Cup final and 56.46s in the Asian Championship final.

Rohit could not breach the 75m mark in the men’s javelin throw competition but a best throw of 74.42m was enough for him to claim gold in the event.

Taipei’s Huang Shih-Feng won silver with a throw of 74.04m, while his compatriot Cheng Chao-Tsun was third with an effort of 73.95m.

Pooja won the women’s 800m final with a championship record time of 2:02.79s to edge past compatriot Twinkle Chaudhary, who clocked 2:06.96s to clinch silver.

Krishan Kumar then came back from behind to win the top prize in the men’s 800m final with a time of 1:48.46s, which is also a new championship record.

In the women’s javelin final later in the day, Annu Rani struck gold after she threw the spear at a distance of 56.82m. The Indian could not improve on her season’s best performance but the sub-57 metre throw was enough for her to finish ahead of silver winner Hatarabage Lekamalage (56.82m) of Sri Lanka and Taipei’s Pin-Hsun Chu (53.03m).

In the women’s long jump event, India’s Shaili Singh (6.41m) and Ancy Sojan (6.39m) then won the silver and bronze medals respectively, finishing behind Australia’s Delta Amidzovski (6.49m), who won the gold medal.