Asian Athletics Championships 2025: Jyothi Yarraji, Avinash Sable add to gold rush as Indian girls win 4x400m relay

It rained gold for India on the Asian Athletics Championships on Thursday because the nation’s quickest girl hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, seasoned steeplechase runner Avinash Sable and the 4x400m girls’s relay group delivered stupendous performances to complete on prime in Gumi, South Korea.

After Jyothi and Sable set the tone, the quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha and Subha Venkatesan clinched the gold medal within the girls’s 4x400m relay occasion after clocking their season-best time (3:34.18sec) to increase India’s dominance on the third competitors day of the continental championship.

Vietnam took silver with 3:34.77sec, whereas Sri Lanka settled for the bronze with 3:36.67sec.

This was the tenth gold general for India within the occasion and first since 2013. Total, India snared three gold, two silver and a bronze medal on Thursday taking their general tally to 14 after proceedings had been disrupted by an enormous thunderstorm.

India are at the moment positioned second within the general standings behind China, who’ve 21 medals together with 12 gold.

The boys’s 4x400m relay group of Jay Kumar, Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil Saji and Vishal TK additionally seemed to be on track for a gold medal earlier than settling for silver with a timing of three:03.67sec which was their finest efficiency to date.

Qatar (3:03.52sec) gained the gold medal, whereas China (3:03.73sec) ended the race with bronze within the males’s 4x400m relay.

Earlier, on his option to victory with a season-best efficiency, Sable grew to become the primary Indian man in 36 years to win a gold medal in steeplechase on the Asian Championships.

Tula Maanla Re Sable! 👑

Avinash Sable ended India’s 36-year look forward to a gold medal in males’s 3000m steeplechase with a season’s finest time of 8:20.29 seconds. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/DRZHJBhwYq

— Olympic Khel (@OlympicKhel) Could 29, 2025

“I used to be assured of profitable gold as I used to be finest within the discipline,” stated Sable, who has already certified for the World Championships in September.

Quickly after, Jyothi produced a late burst to clinch her second straight gold medal on this competitors with a brand new championship file of 12.96 seconds. The earlier file was 12.99 seconds, achieved by China’s Su Yiping within the 2000 version of the event.

“It was day. I’m blissful to interrupt the 13 second barrier this season,” she stated after profitable the gold medal.

Sable clocked 8:20.92sec to assert the highest honour, which can also be his second Asian medal after a silver within the 2019 version. It was, nevertheless, nowhere near his nationwide file of 8:09.91sec achieved in 2024.

The final time India gained a gold on this occasion was method again in 1989 when Dina Ram completed on prime. Harbel Singh was the primary Indian to fetch a males’s steeplechase gold on the showpiece again in 1975.

Within the 2023 version, Jyothi gained the gold medal with an effort of 13.09. However her private finest timing, which can also be the nationwide file, is a method higher 12.78 seconds.

Wah ji, Jyothi Yarraji! 🏃‍♀️

The Indian hurdler storms to back-to-back 100m hurdles titles on the Asian Athletics Championships with a championship record-breaking 12.96s. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Sf4mE0gYTN

— Olympic Khel (@OlympicKhel) Could 29, 2025

The Asian Video games silver-medallist, nonetheless joined a choose membership of 5 athletes to defend gold within the Asian Championships 100m hurdles, the others being Emi Akimoto of Japan (1979, 1981, 1983), Zhang Yu of China (1991, 1993), Su Yinping of China (2003, 2005) and Solar Yawei of China (2009, 2011).

Moments earlier than Jyothi’s triumph, Sable lived as much as the favorite tag with some ease to consolidate the nation’s place within the twenty sixth version of the continental event.

Japan’s Yutaro Niinae, who clinched the silver with 8:24.41sec, was main initially of the ultimate lap however the Indian ace produced a superb effort to go previous him and declare the highest prize.

The Hangzhou Asian Video games gold-medallist continued to remain forward of the pack with 4 laps to go however he had two Japanese athletes following him intently.

Niinae overtook Sable with three laps remaining, however the Indian had the final giggle. Qatar’s Zakaria Elahlaami took the bronze after clocking 8:27.12sec.

After Jyothi and Sable’s exploits, the quartet of Jisna, Rupal, Kunja and Subha ensured a hat-trick of gold medals for India on the day. The was Rupal’s third medal, having gained a blended group gold and a person 400m silver within the championship. For Subha, it was her second gold after her podium end within the blended relay occasion.

Later, lengthy jumpers Anci Sojan Edapilly (6.33m) and Shaili Singh (6.30m) fetched a silver and bronze respectively, ending behind Iran’s Reihaneh Mobini Arani, who coated 6.40m. It was a poor present by Shaili, whose private finest is 6.76m.

Nonetheless, she might need been hampered by the moist observe.

One other prime end awaits India on Friday as Nandini Agasara leads the standings after 4 occasions with an gathered rating of 3610.

Within the girls’s 10,000m ultimate, India’s Sanjeevani Jadhav clocked a season’s better of 33:08.17sec, ending fifth, adopted intently by Seema in sixth at 33:08.23sec.

The occasion was dominated by Daisy Jepkemei of Kazakhstan (30:48.44), forward of Japan’s Ririrak Hironika (30:56.32) and Mikuni Yada (31:12.21).