Asian Games: Neeraj Chopra prevails in battle with Kishore Jena to retain gold

Neeraj Chopra had the last laugh during a stirring duel with compatriot Kishore Jena after brushing aside a technical glitch to defend gold at the ongoing Asian Games 2023 while the mens 400m relay team also retained its title as India snared 12 medals on Wednesday to record its bestever show at the continental showpieceThe track and field athletes delivered seven medals on the day that took Indias overall tally to 81 the bestever show by the country at the event Indias previous best medal haul of 70 came in the last edition at JakartaIndia are assured of more medals in several competitions and the country is expected to breach the 90medal mark if not touch the coveted 100Chopra was overwhelming favourite in his event but Jena threw up a huge surprise when he heaved his spear to 8677m to overtake his decorated compatriot who had managed 8449m in his second attemptThis was after a dramatic start when Chopras first effort was not recorded due to a malfunction in electronic distance measurementThe Indian camp was jumping with joy with the two Indians locked in a thrilling battle to outdo each otherChopra then responded to the challenge like a true champion and came up with his seasonbest effort of 8888m in his fourth attempt to regain the lead Jena too gave his all to further better his personalbest mark by covering the distance of 8754m but it was good enough only to finish second behind ChopraAlso ReadNeeraj Chopras first throw goes unmeasured Anju accuses China of cheatingThe two Indians could not better their throws after that and settled for a 12With his stunning effort Kishore thus sealed his berth for the Paris Olympics The qualification mark was 8550 Chopra has already qualified for the 2024 Games with a throw of 8877 at the World Championships in Budapest in August this yearIndian quartet of Anas Muhammed Yahiya Amoj Jacob Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh also sealed the gold for India in the mens 4x400m relay with a timing of 30158Indian quartet of Vithya Ramraj Aishwarya Mishra Prachi and Subha Venkatesan also claimed a silver in womens 4x400m relayThe India quartet came up with an effort of 32785 to finish second while Bahrain dished out a Games record effort of 32765 to claim the top position while Sri Lanka won the bronze with a timing of 33088It was third silver of the day for India in athleticsHarmilan Bains and Avinash Sable won a silver medal each in womens 800m and mens 5000m respectivelyWhile Harmilan clocked an impressive timing of 20375 to bag the silver Sable produced an effort of 132109Earlier during the day Indian race walkers Manju Rani and Ram Baboo won the bronze medal in the inaugural 35km mixed team eventIn mens high jump Anil Kushare produced a season best jump of 226m but it was not enough as he missed a medal finishing at the fourth spot He needed to clear the 229m mark to stay in the fight for a medalJesse Sandesh produced a jump of 219m to finish 9thIndias Sheena Varkey Nellickal finishes sixth in the Womens Triple Jump final with a throw of 1334mWith agency inputs