India’s Swapna Barman celebrates with her national flag after competing in the women’s heptathlon at the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha. (Source: AP)Swapna Barman won the silver medal in Heptathlon event at the Asian Athletics Championships on Tuesday after scoring her season-best with 5993 points. India won three medals on Day 3 of the competition with India’s mixed relay team in 4X400m adding another silver and Sanjivani Jadhav winning bronze in Women’s 10,000m taking India’s medal tally to 13.
The 22-year-old Swapna old opened the medal tally for India on Day 3. She finished with the silver medal behind Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Vornina who scored 6198 points and missed breaking legendary Ghada Shouaa’s meet record of 6259 points.
Barman’s aggregate points was more than the 5942 she had logged while winning the gold in the last edition in 2017 but was less than the 6026 she had accumulated in the Asian Games in Jakarta last year.
Barman, however, was not satisfied with the second place. She said after the finish, “Not very happy, I am not pleased with my result in Javelin Throw this morning. Preparation was not good, I am injury queen you know (laughs), had a problem in ankle. I really wanted to do better.” Barman, who also won gold at the Asian Championships in 2017, returned from the Asian Games in 2018 with a gold.
Swapna Barman’s biodata now reads like this:
GOLD: Asian Games 2018 (6026 points)
GOLD: Asian Championships 2017 (5942 points)
Silver: Asian Championships 2019 (5993 points) pic.twitter.com/PrqhneFkOs— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) 23 April 2019
Swapna Barman (who won Silver medal in Heptathlon event at Asian Athletics Championships) on the victory podium #AAC2019 #AsianAthleticsChampionship2019 pic.twitter.com/kVEpzn0R74
— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) 23 April 2019
In the 4x4000m mixed relay team which was introduced for the first time in this championship, Mohammed Anas, M R Poovamma, V K Vismaya and Arokia Rajiv clocked 3:16.47 to win the silver medal, behind Bahrain.
#Silver, Silver, Silver another medal for India, this time in 4*400m Mixed Relay (Mohd Anas Yahiya, Poovamma MR, VK Vismaya, Arokiya Rajiv) clocked 3:16.47 to fetch the medal. In AG 2018, Indian team clocked 3:15.71s for Silver Medal @afiindia @PoovammaMR #AsianAthletics pic.twitter.com/8dlfXwXIgk
— Nitin Arya (@nitinarya99) 23 April 2019
Sanjivani Jadhav clocked personal best of 32:44.96 to win bronze medal in women’s 10,000m. She finished behind Bahrain’s Shitaye Habtegebrel (31:15.62) and Japan’s Hitomi Niiya (31:22.63).
India now have an overall of two gold medals, five silver medals and six bronze to its tally.
Dutee Chand stormed into the final of women’s 200m after winning her Heat clocking 23.33s. Earlier in the championships, Dutee finished fifth in the 100m finals despite shattering the National Record twice in Heats and semifinals respectively. Ajay Kumar Saroj progressed to the final of Men’s 1500m after finishing second in Heat (2) clocking 3:49.20.
India finished 4th in 4X100m Relay (Women), clocking 43.81s. Suseentra, Veeramani, Kunnath and Dutee ran the race. The last baton exchange between Kunnath and Dutee took a long time, otherwise medal looked likely.
In a major blow to India, Jinson Johnson pulled out of the tournament, owing to an injury just hours before the 1500m finals. “His left calf muscle is troubling him at the moment. Doctors have advised him not to compete in such situation,” deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair said in a statement.
Johnson could not complete his 800m final race on Monday. He holds the national records in both 800m and 1500m.
