Asian Athletics C'ships: Gulveer, Servin open India's medal tally

Gumi [South Korea], May 27 : Indian athletes kickstarted the Asian Athletics Championships 2025 in Gumi on a high, with Gulveer Singh securing a gold medal in men's 10,000 m and Servin Sebastian bagging a 20 km race walk bronze medal.

As per Olympics.com, Annu Rani, in women's javelin throw, bagged the fourth spot.

Gulveer, the national record holder in men's 3000m, 5000m and 10000m, clocked 28:38.63 minutes for the win in Gumi.

The Indian athlete outdid Japan's Mebuki Suzuki (28:43.84) and Bahrain's Albert Kibichi Rop (28:46.82). India's Sawan Barwal finished fourth with 28:50.53 minutes. Gulveer will also later feature in men's 5000 m action later on, having secured a bronze medal in the same category in the Asian Championships back in 2023.

Earlier, Servin also bagged a bronze medal in the men's 20 km race walk event, clocking personal best of 1:21:14 hour, finishing behind Wang Zhaozhao (1:20:37) of China and Kento Yoshikawa (1:20:46) of Japan. The fifth position was bagged by India's Amit Khatri, who had the timings of 1:22:15 hour.

Servin's previous best was in the National Games earlier this year, while Akshdeep holds the national record in the category, having clocked 1:19:55 hours in the National Games as well.

The Asian Games champion Annu though, fell short of a medal with her best attempt of 58.30 m, which was also her third attempt. China's Su Lingdan bagged the gold medal, with a personal best of 63.92m, while the Japanese duo Sae Takemoto (58.94m) and Momone Ueda (58.60m) filled the rest of the podium.

Annu's personal best of 63.82 m, is also the Indian national record in women's javelin throw.

Also, Yoonus Shah made it to the final of the men's 1500 m final, finishing second in the heats with a time of 3:46.96 minutes. Ajay Kumar Saroj had bagged the Asian Championships gold for the nation two years back in Bangkok in this event.

Sarvesh Anil Kushare also qualified for the men's high jump final after a joint-fourth place finish in the qualifiers with a 2.10m clearance.

Vishal TK secured a spot in the men's 400 m final while Jay Kumar was eliminated in the semifinals. Vishal also clocked his new personal best of 46.05s in the semi-finals.

Paris 2024 Olympian Vithya Ramraj and Rupal Chaudhary also secured their tickets to the semi-finals of the women's 400m.

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