28-year-old Manjit ran his personal best of 1 minute 46.15 seconds to win his first major international medal. (Source: Reuters)
A late burst during the men’s 800m metre final helped Manjit Singh upstage pre-race favourite Jinson Johnson to take gold. Johnson, on the other hand, won silver and thus completed a one-two finish for India on Tuesday in Jakarta. 28-year-old Manjit ran his personal best of 1 minute 46.15 seconds to win his first major international medal.
Johnson finished with a time of 1 minute 46.35 seconds. In June, he had smashed Sriram Singh’s 42-year-old 800m record. Abdul Abubaker of Qatar finished third with 1 minute 46.35 seconds.
“I saw videos of my races at national and international events and analysed the mistakes. I was motivated to improve myself. I never thought of bettering the national mark. I just wanted to give my best. I don’t have a job but my coach is from Army,” said the athlete, who lives in Jind, Haryana, and comes from a family of farmers.