Asian Athletics Championships: 100m hurdler Jyothi clinches gold, Saroj claims 1500m title

India scooped three gold medals on the second day of Asian Athletics Championships with woman 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji clinching her maiden top finish in a major international event and Ajay Kumar Saroj running a brilliant race to win the men's 1500m title on Thursday. Commonwealth Games silver medallist Abdulla Aboobacker grabbed India's third gold of the day by winning the men's triple jump event.

It was an impressive show by the Indians as they won three gold out of 10 on offer on Thursday. Aishwarya Mishra (53.07 seconds) was the other medal winning Indian on the day, with a bronze in women's 400m final.

The 23-year-old Yarraji opened India's gold medal as she clocked 13.09 seconds to win the 100m hurdles final race ahead of two Japanese runners Terada Asuka (13.13s) and Aoki Masumi (13.26s) on a rain-drenched track at the Supachalasai Stadium. Yarraji's national record stands at 12.82 seconds. She had won gold in the National Inter-State Championships last month in 12.92 seconds but the wet track, after rain lashed the stadium, was not ideal for fast time.

In the men's 1500m, the 26-year-old Saroj ran a brilliantly executed race as he came out of nowhere in the final bend to go past two opponents and win the gold. He clocked 3:41.51 seconds, two and half seconds outside his personal best of 3:39.19 which he had recorded last month in an event in USA.

It was the third medal on the trot and second gold for Saroj, who had trained in the USA in May, in the Asian Athletics Championships. Ajay Kumar Saroj had won gold in the 2017 edition in Bhubaneswar and silver in 2019 in Doha. For Aboobacker, it was his season's best effort of 16.92m that fetched him the gold, ahead of Ikehata Hikaru (16.73m) of Japan and Jangwoo Kim (16.59m) of Korea.

The 27-year-old began with a foul but cleared 16.92m in his fourth attempt for the gold. On Wednesday, Abhishek Pal had opened India's medal account with a bronze in men's 10,000m race.

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