Neeraj Chopra hails Indian athletes, following their brilliant performance in Asian Athletics Championships

New Delhi [India] June 1 (ANI): Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra expressed gratitude to Indian athletes who fought hard in the 26th Asian Athletics Championships on Saturday in the South Korean City of Gumi. The Indian athletes swelled the overall medal tally to 24 and finished in second place behind China.

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Eight of the 24 medals were gold, 10 silver, and six bronze. China topped the table chart with 26 medals, including 15 gold, eight silver and three bronze medals.

Neeraj Chopra, in a post on X, said, "So happy to see Indian Athletics grow and strive! Onwards and upwards from here, jy hind."

All eyes on the final day of the continental competition were on the men's javelin throw. Sachin Yadav, on his international debut, recorded a personal and season best of 85.16m to win the silver medal behind Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem (86.40m).

The final day also saw Animesh Kujur sprinting to glory in the men's 200m. A false start by a Chinese sprinter didn't upset the Indian sprinter's strategy to win a medal in the 200m.

On his way to winning bronze, Kujur clocked 20.32 seconds to better his own national record of 20.40 seconds set in a domestic meet in Kochi in April.

Indian quartet of Srabani Nanda, SS Sneha, Abhinaya Rajarajan and Nithya Gandhe clocked 43.86 seconds to win silver in women's 4x100m relay. China took home gold while Thailand won bronze.

Distance runner Parul Chaudhary added a second silver to her kitty on Saturday. The winner of silver in the women's 3,000m steeplechase added a 5000m silver medal to her collection today.

Middle-distance runner Pooja also added an 800m bronze to her kitty. She had won a 1500m silver in the competition. Vithya Ramraj also won bronze in the women's 400m hurdles. She clocked 56.46 seconds.

However, Jyothi Yarraji and Nithya Gandhe weren't successful in winning medals in the women's 200m. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)