Asian Athletics: Parul, Toor adds to India’s golden run; Shaili leaps to silver

It is not surprising to see Parul Chaudhary in inspired form this season. Training alongside Avinash Sable in the high-altitude of Colorado Springs for three months.

Chaudhary saw the insatiable drive of the Armyman, who keeps lowering his national record and stunned a world-class field in Birmingham CWG last year with a surprise silver medal, and it is impossible to not be affected.

That said, Chaudhary now wants to carve out a similar path for herself and raise her standards in major international meets. Earlier this year, she broke a 13-year-old Indian record in women’s 5000m (15:10.35s) at a meet in the US. And that newly-acquired resolve and stubbornness were on show at the Asian Championships in Bangkok on Friday as she won gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase race.

Her timing of 9:38.76secs is not an improvement on his personal best — 9:29.51 — that she achieved this year, but her sheer domination of the field is a reflection of her growing stature.

“My target was to win gold. It was a comfortable race for me though I wanted to clock better timings and was not satisfied that way,” said Parul.

China’s Xi Shuanghuang (9:44.54sec) was a distant second and Japan’s Remi Yoshimura (9.44.44) did enough to nudge ahead of India’s Priti (9:48.50) to take the bronze.

Parul, however, ran her own race and had no competition in the final lap. “The training at Colorado Springs under coach Scott Simmons was of big help. With Avinash, we trained with international runners in a pack for almost 80 days. It has helped in building endurance, speed and a winning mindset. When you see someone like Avinash and how is giving tough competition to world-class runners, you feel motivated,” said Parul, who won bronze at the Asian Championships in 2019 in 5000m.

Chaudhary will be looking to improve her timing and win a medal at the Asian Games this year, while she also has an eye on breaking Lalita Babar’s national 3000m steeplechase record of 9:19.76 is also on top priority.

India won a second gold medal on the second day of the competition courtesy of Tajinderpal Singh Toor. The Asian Games champion overcame groin pain to just about complete his second throw (20.22m) for a gold medal. Last month, Toor improved his Asian record (21.77m) at the Inter-State meet and qualified for world championships.

“I have had groin pain since I came here. I took two attempts and then the pain resurfaced so I did not take any more throws. I got this pain before the Inter-State Championships. I didn’t get much time for recovery. After this event, I will focus on recovery and it should be okay in 10 days,” said Toor, who will be the favourite to defend his gold medal at the Asian Games.

The third medal of the day came from Shaili Singh in the long jump. Her best jump of 6.54m came in her first attempt. Japan’s Sumire Hata simply blew away the field with a massive 6.97m leap in her last attempt to nail the gold medal by a long distance. China’s Shiqi Xiong came third (6.57m) while India’s Ancy Sojan (6.56m) finished 4th.

“After the first jump, I was having issues on the runway. I was not able to give my best but I am happy to win my first medal at the Asian Championships. I am still new at the senior level and I will catch up with others in some time,” said the 19-year-old.

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Yashas Palaksha and Santosh Kumar qualified for the final.