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Asian Athletics: India win gold in mixed relay – Tezzbuzz

Samira Vishwas | May 31, 2025 8:24 AM CST

Gumi, May 29: India’s 4x400m mixed relay team defended its gold with a domineering performance after four individual silvers and a bronze in varying events bolstered the country’s overall tally to eight medals on a brilliant second day outing at the 26th Asian Athletics Championship here.

The Indian quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, Santhosh Kumar, Vishal TK and Subha Venkatesan won the top honours with a timing of 3:18.12sec. Of these, Rupal also claimed the individual women’s 400m silver earlier in the day.

Subha, on the other hand, was a part of the mixed team that claimed gold in the 2023 edition. China’s team finished a distant second after cloking 3:20.52s, while Sri Lanka took bronze with 3:21.95s.

The largely US-based Tejaswin Shankar was among the silver-winners for India, finishing second in decathlon after accumulating a score of 7618 following the regulation 10 events. He ended behind China’s Fei Xiang (7634) and ahead of Japan’s Keisuke Okuda (7602).

Praveen Chithravel also bagged a silver medal in men’s triple jump with a best effort of 16.90m.

Earlier, Rupal (400m) and Pooja (1500m) picked up silver medals, Yoonus Shah fetched a bronze in men’s 1500m.

The mixed gold was India’s second top finish after national record-holder Gulveer Singh’s (10,000m) brilliance on Tuesday.

Quarter-miler Rupal opened India’s account for the day, clocking 52.68 seconds to finish second in the women’s 400m final. Fellow Indian Vithya Ramraj was placed fifth with a time of 53.00 seconds.

The gold went to Japan’s Nanako Matsumoto (52.17s), while Uzbekistan’s Jonbibi Hukmova (52.79s) took bronze.

Pooja followed with another silver, clocking 4:10.83sec in the women’s 1500m, just ahead of compatriot Lili Das, who finished fourth (4:13.81sec).

Li Chunhui of China (4:10.58) won the gold while and Japan’s Tomaka Kimura ran a season’s best time of 4:11.56 to claim the bronze medal.

Rupal had scripted history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the World U20 Athletics Championships in 2022, claiming a silver in the 4x400m relay followed by a bronze in the women’s 400m events back then.

Hailing from a farming family in Shahpur Jainpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, the 20-year-old is being seen as a bright prospect.

In the men’s 1500m, Yoonus Shah clinched bronze with a time of 3:43.03, pushing India’s medal count to five.

Japanese runner Kazuto Lizawa ran a personal best of 3:42.56 to take home the coveted gold medal while South Koreas Jaeung Lee (3:42.79) finished second.

Aside from national record-holder Gulveer’s gold, Servin Sebastian clinched the 20km race walk bronze on the opening day of the competition.

In other results, Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi ran a personal best of 45.57s in the men’s 400m but that could only fetch him a fourth-place finish.

Long jumpers Shaili Singh and Ancy Sojan qualified for the final of the women’s long jump event.