India continued her medal with a medal at Asian athletics championships. On the 4th day of the continental track and field meetings, the nation secured three gold medals, thus increasing the total number to 18 and firmly strengthening its position in second place on the table of medals, China.
The highlight of the day came when 18 -year -old Poooja created a new personal best to bring gold in a high jump. For the first time since 2000, the Indian athlete in this event at Asian athletic championships has reached the stage.
Meanwhile, Gulveer Singh has finished a remarkable double and declared 5000m gold with a championship record just a few days after winning gold at 10,000 meters. It was especially Gulveer who opened the Indian gold medal 1.
Pooja secured gold with the best effort of 1.89 m, personal milestone. Initially, she failed to clean 1.83 mA 1.86 m during her first attempts, but realized that the height above 1.86 m was needed for gold, at the first attempt increased over 1.89 m.
Pooja then tried to create a new national record and increase the bar to 1.92 m for its last jump, but missed. However, she liked her teenage in her golden moment, plunging into the air and incredible in disbelief over her face.
Whaaaaaaaat! Pooja cleans 1.89 m in the final with a high jump of women – and currently leads the competition!
He breaks his previous personal best best of 1.85 m (also U20 National Record) and is now ready to try 1.92 m – higher national record height!
A goal and pic.twitter.com/kslxrwhbh– Nnis Sports (@nnis_sports) May 30, 2025
Uzbekistan Safina Sadullaeva won silver with 1.86 m, while Kazakhstan Yelizaveta won bronze.
It was Pooja the first main medal at a higher level. She won a gold medal at the Asian U18 championships in Tashkent to catch the reflector at the highest level.
Pooja comes from a humble background with his father Hansraj, works as a construction worker or a Freemason. Despite the financial limitation, the early athletic career began with gymnastics before the transition to high jumping under the leadership of coach Balwan Singh.
Tejaswin Shankar, who won silver in Decathlon, called Pooja’s Gold medals the greatest success of the Indian at Asian Athletics Championships.
“The greatest performance from the Indian view of the AAC2025 in Gumi is Pooja’s for me,” he said.
Gulveer joined the elite list
Gulveer broke a ten -year meeting at 5,000 meters of men. The runner with the national record closed 13: 24.77 seconds to overcome the Thai Kieran Tuntivate, which ended just in 13: 24.97 seconds, while Japanese Nagiya Mori took bronze at 13: 25.06s.
The previous championship record belonged to Katar Muhammad Al-Garni, who threw 13: 34,47 in the 2015 edition.
With this performance, Gulveer became only the second Indian in the history of Asian athletic championships to win 5,000 and 10,000 meters after G Lakshmanan in 2017.
He also joined the elite group of Indian athletes to win gold in the ranking of 5000 meters for continental meetings – three are Gopal Saini (1981), Prasad Bahadur (1993) and G Lakshmanan (2017). (With PTI inputs)
Published:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
May 30, 2025
