Tejaswin Shankar secures decathlon bronze at Asian Games

Tejaswin Shankar capped a demanding two days of competition with a victory in the final event, the 1500m, to secure the decathlon bronze at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday. The Indian finished with 7,934 points after clocking 4:33.09 in the 1500m, winning the race ahead of Japan’s Yuma Maruyama. Maruyama, however, claimed the overall gold with 8,123 points, while China’s Xinghua Chen took silver after finishing third in the final race. Tejaswin’s bronze was India’s 35th medal of the Games, taking the country’s tally to four gold, 15 silver and 16 bronze. It was also India’s 11th medal in athletics, as the country continued to wait for its first gold in track and field.

Three event wins power Tejaswin’s medal

The Indian decathlete won three of the 10 events across the two days — long jump, high jump and the 1500m — to complete his campaign on the podium. The 1500m, the final test in the gruelling multi-event competition, offered Tejaswin a chance to finish strongly. He seized it with a winning run, but Maruyama’s points advantage from the earlier events was enough to secure the Japanese athlete the title.

The bronze added to India’s athletics medal haul, which had grown earlier on Sunday through Harita Bhadra’s third-place finish in the women’s 200m and Ancy Sojan’s silver in the women’s long jump.

Ancy misses gold by two centimetres

Ancy came close to giving India its first athletics gold of the Games, but China’s Yingying Huang produced a decisive final-round jump to take the women’s long jump title. Ancy had moved into the lead with 6.53m in her fifth attempt, only for Huang to leap 6.55m in the final round. Ancy’s last effort was 6.49m. Shaili Singh also missed the podium after China’s Mengyi Tan improved to 6.46m with her final attempt, pushing the Indian from third to fourth. Shaili’s best jump was 6.42m. Earlier, Harita won bronze in the women’s 200m in 23.20 seconds, edging Japan’s Abigeirufuka Ido by 0.01 seconds. Indonesia’s Shanti Pereira took gold in 22.78s, with China’s Yujie Chen earning silver in 22.93s. Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland finished sixth in 23.46s.