The Asian Athletics Association organized the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship from July 6-9, 2017. The event was held at Bhubaneswar, India at the Kalinga Stadium. For India 2017 was an impressive year at the Asian Athletics Championship.
For the first time in history, India finished on the top of the medal tally in their most successful campaign with 29 medals this Sunday.
India won five gold medals on the last day. The four-day tournament ended with India grabbing 12 gold, five silver, and 12 bronze medals.
China ended at the second position with 8 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze. Kazakhstan finished third with 4 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze while Iran ended on fourth with 4 gold and 1 bronze. India cracked China’s monopoly this time
However, our country, suffered a huge setback as their 800m runner Archana Adhav was disqualified, although she was initially declared as the gold medal winner, for pushing Sri Lankan rival Nimali Waliwarsha Konda from behind near the finishing line. India even requested to reconsider the decision but the jury of technical delegates refused and took a unanimous decision to disqualify Archana.
Thus India lost a gold medal in dramatic circumstances. In spite of the setback, most of the time the crowd at the Kalinga Stadium was on the edge of their seats as India kept winning gold medals one after another under humid conditions.
Heptathlete Swapna Barman was the first Indian who gave India the first gold of the day. Japan’s Meg Hemphill was second with 5883 points while another Indian Purnima Hembram was third with 5798 points. After that Lakshmanan Govindan took the center stage as he grabbed his second gold of the championships by winning the men’s 10,000m event in 29 minute and 55.87 seconds.
World junior record holder javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra also grabbed the gold with a final throw of 85.23m. Devinder Singh Kang stood at the third position by clearing a distance of 83.29m.
Thus this year has indeed been a good year for India in sports, especially women.
Way to go!
