Asian Athletics meet: India finishes third with 27 medals as Abha Khatua breaks national record to win silver in shot put

Abha Khatua equalled shot put national record, Jyothi Yarraji and Parul Chaudhary won silver medals. India ended campaign with 27 medals, 6 gold, 12 silver & 9 bronze.

Unheralded Abha Khatua equalled shot put national record while finishing second in a surprise performance while Jyothi Yarraji and Parul Chaudhary clinched their second medals — both silver — as India ended their campaign with 27 medals at the Asian Athletics Championships campaign at third spot in Bangkok

The 28-year-old Khatua made a huge improvement of nearly a metre — 93 cm — from her earlier lifetime best of 17.13m as she sent the 4kg iron ball to a distance of 18.06m in her fourth throw to finish second behind Song Jiayuan (18.88m) of China. Her second-best throw of the day was 17.10m.

Veteran Manpreet Kaur, whose national record Khatua equalled on Sunday, took the bronze with a first-round throw of 17m.

Apart from six gold medals, India also won 12 silver and nine bronze medals.

India won 13 medals on the final day of the championship which included eight silver and five bronze medals.

In other events, 23-year-old Yarraji, who had become the first Indian to win a 100m hurdles gold in the Asian Championships on Thursday, added a 200m silver to her kitty on Sunday.

She clocked a personal best time of 23.13 seconds to finish second behind Veronica Shanti Pereira (22.70) of Singapore in the final.