After four events of heptathlon, Tejaswin Shankar, had 3513 points in his kitty and is on track to win gold medal.
India’s national record holder and Asian Games medallist, Tejaswin Shankar, tightened his grip over the gold medal on day-one of heptathlon event at the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships at Chinese City of Tianjin on Saturday. According to information reaching here, after four events on Day-One of heptathlon, the 27 years old is leading the field with a total of 3513 points.
China’s Zihui Hua is trailing at second place with 3241 points.
Shankar, national record holder in decathlon, began his day on a promising note, collecting 844 points with a time of 7.11 seconds, a personal best, in the 60m dash.
While he recorded 7.53m in the long jump to add 942 points to his tally. In shot put his best performance was 13.63m which earned him 706 points.
In high jump, the fourth and last event of Day-One of heptathlon, the Indian athlete recorded a season best of 2.23m to collect 1021 points to move to top of the table.
The remaining three events— 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1,000m, in that order, will take place on the final day February 8.
In the women’s 60m dash, India’s Nithya Gandhe finished a creditable seventh with a personal best of 7.49 seconds. Earlier in heats she clocked 7.50 seconds to qualify for the final.
On day-one, India’s high jumper Aadrash Ram Jothi Shankar won bronze.
The final day will be more exciting as India’s two heavy weights—Tejinderpal Singh Toor and Samardeep Singh Gill will be in action in men’s shot put.
India’s Asian Games medallist in women’s long jump, Ancy Sojan, will be hungry to earn a medal at the jumping arena.
EOM
