Asian Indoor Athletics: India finish with a haul of seven medals

Indian athletes added two more medals – a silver and a bronze – on the final day of the 7th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar to finish the tournament with seven medals. The haul includes one gold, three silver and three bronze.

On Sunday, it was Prem Kumar who clinched the silver medal in men’s long jump while the defending men’s shot put champion Omprakash Karhana had to settle for the bronze.

The 22-year-old Tamil Nadu athlete Kumar had earlier won the bronze in the 2012 edition of this event. This time, he went one better as he emerged as the second best after achieving a distance of 7.92m on his fifth attempt.

The gold went to Zhang Yaoguang of China for an effort of 7.99m.

Omprakash Karhana, however, could not repeat his gold medal-winning feat from a couple of years ago. The Indian national record holder could only heave the shot put to 18.77m for the bronze. The distance he managed at Doha is much lesser than his personal best of 20.69, set at Szombathely, Hungary in 2012.

Women’s team finished in the sixth place

In the overall rankings, the Indian women’s team finished in the sixth place while the men’s team could only secure the eighth spot. It was the women’s team which brought home India’s only gold medal from the 2016 Asian Indoors as Mayookha Johny topped the podium in long jump.

On Day 1, the Indian team had won three medals including Johny’s gold while they got two more on Day 2. India had won just medal - a gold - in the previous edition in 2014.