Kartik Kumar and Gulveer Singh in action© Twitter
Indian long-distance runners Kartik Kumar and Gulveer Singh bagged a silver and bronze medal respectively in the men’s 10000m race with personal best times at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Saturday. Kartik won the silver with a timing of 28:15.38s while Gulveer clocked 28:17.21s to claim the bronze. Both the Indians sneaked into medal contention in the last 100 metres after three of the fellow competitors fell in succession after bumping into each other.
(Asian Games 2023 Medals Tally | Asian Games 2023 Full Schedule)
Birhanu Yemataw Balew of Bahrain won the gold medal with a timing of 28:13.62 seconds.
Kartik’s earlier personal best time was 28:55.00s which he had clocked while winning a bronze in the National Games last year. He had won gold in the National Inter-State Championships in June with a time of 29:01.84s.
“I knew that I would win a medal but I had come with the target of breaking the national record by clocking 27:50s. But I could not. I was slow in between, the race was also slow from the beginning,” said Kartik, who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The national record stands at 28:02.89s in the name of Surendra Singh since 2008.
In the 400m race final, Aishwarya Mishra finished fourth with a time of 53.50s in the women’s event while Muhammed Ajmal clocked 45.97s to end at fifth spot in the men’s competition.
In the 1500m, Jinson Johnson and Ajay Kumar Saroj qualified for the final by clocking 3:56.93s and 3:51.93 seconds in their respective heats.
While Saroj finished second in his heat, Johnson was fifth.
Jeswin Aldrin Johnson and Murali Sreeshankar leaped 7.67m and 7.97m to qualify for the final of the men’s long jump event.
In women’s 100m hurdles, Jyothi Yarraji clocked 13.03s to finish second in her heat and qualify for the final.
But it was heartbreak for the other Indian in the fray, Nithya Ramraj who finished fifth in her heat with a timing of 13.30s and failed to qualify for the final.
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