Jakarta: Triple jumper Arpinder Singh and heptathlete Swapna Burman made India proud by winning gold medals in their respective events at the Asian Games here Wednesday.
However, the mixed 4x400m relay team had to be satisfied with a silver after the country’s protest against champions Bahrain was rejected by the Asian Games’ Jury of Appeals for the athletics competition.
India had lodged a protest, stating that a Bahraini runner had caused obstruction to Hima Das during the race. The Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas, MR Poovamma, Hima and Arokia Rajiv had clocked 3 minutes and 15.71 seconds to finish behind Bahrain (3:11.89).
Arpinder, who has been without a medal in multi-sporting events since winning a bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, produced a best jump of 16.77m which he came up with in his third attempt.
Wednesday’s mark of Arpinder was, however, well below his season best of 17.09m which he did during the National Inter-State Championships in June, which had put him at No.3 in Asian rankings. Arpinder has a personal best of 17.17m. He had finished fifth in the 2014 Asian Games.
Meanwhile Swapna created history by becoming the first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold, a feat she achieved despite competing with pain due to a toothache.
The 21-year-old Swapna logged 6,026 points from the seven events competed for two days. En route to the title, the events Swapna won were high jump (1,003 points) and javelin throw (872 points) and finished second in shot put (707 points) and long jump (865 points). Her weakest events were 100m (981 points, 5th position) and 200m (790 points, 7th).
Another Indian in the fray, Purnima Hembram missed bronze by a whisker as she finished fourth with 5, 837 just 36 points shy of Japan’s Yuki Yamasaki (5,873) the bronze medal with 5873 points.
“It is indeed a dream come true for me,” Swapna said once the scoreboard flashed her name as the gold medal winner. “I’ve really worked hard to be where I am today,” she added.
