Asian Games: Tejaswin Shankar settles for bronze after failing to defend decathlon silver
Nagoya, Sep 27 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Tejaswin Shankar could not defend his decathlon silver from the Hangzhou Asian Games but still etched his name in the history books by becoming the first Indian man to win two medals in the gruelling discipline at the continental showpiece, securing bronze at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday.
Shankar came third with a total score of 7,934 points, Yuma Maruyama of Japan won the gold medal with 8,123 points and Chen Xinghua from China secured the silver with 8,012 points.
The Indian had a good chance of keeping his position in silver and had remained in with a chance of finishing higher right up to the end of the competition. Prior to the discus throw, Shankar was at the top of the standings with 5,270 points, having obtained 932 points by finishing third in the 110m hurdles heat in 14.33 seconds.
Although his best throw in the discus was 36.77 metres, which was about four metres less than his personal best, he still came third in the competition. His total score then reached 5,869 points, with athletes from China and Japan passing him in the rankings.
In the final part of the decathlon, the events were the pole vault and the javelin throw, neither of which is among Shankar’s stronger events, making it even harder to win back the silver medal.
In the other athletics results, Manju Rani came sixth in the women’s marathon race walk with a time of 3:40:17, while Priyanka Goswami was disqualified at the 9 km mark.
India had a very good performance in surfing as Sivaraj Babu reached the third round of the men’s shortboard competition by beating Iran’s Davoud Khadir with a score of 8.96.
Sivaraj registered scores of 4.83 and 4.13 from his two waves to move into the next round, where he will join fellow Indian Kishore Kumar.
Earlier, Sugar Shanti Gayen and Kamali Prakash also advanced to the third round. Gayen defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chen Wan-yu 7.33-5.40, while Prakash overcame Singapore’s Camille Marie Spaccarotella 7.57-4.50.
All four Indian surfers competing in the men’s and women’s shortboard events have advanced to the third round.
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