Great performances but the athletics gold is yet to come

V Krishnaswamy in Nagoya

Nagoya: India still awaits its first gold in athletics at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, but the three medals, comprising two silver and a bronze, it picked up on Sunday were of a very good quality.

Make no mistakes, each medal is worth its weight in gold, even if it is of a different hue. So all medals are well earned. Overall, India as on Sunday, had six silver and seven bronze.

A little more and at least three of them – the 2023 shot put winner, Tejinder Singh Toor, Ancy Sojan and Sarvesh Anil Kushare – could have made that crucial step up from second to the top. Earlier, Sawan Barwal ran the race of his life in only his second marathon and Gulveer Singh had a superb 10,000m run, underlining the depth and quality that Indian athletics has brought to the Asian Games.

The medals have also come in events where the margins are often painfully small. A fraction of a second, a few centimetres or a single failed attempt can be the difference between gold and silver. That has been the story of India’s athletics campaign so far.

Coming back to Sunday, Parul Chaudhary set a national record in the women’s 3000m steeplechase on a day when India could have had three gold medals at the Nagoya Asian Games.

Parul Chaudhary was up against two African imports, Winfred Yavi of Bahrain and Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan, and it seemed India was destined to lose out on gold even before the race had reached its decisive stages. But Parul used the presence of the world-class steeplechasers to help herself and the country to a remarkable performance.

She clocked an impressive 9:08.67 to win the bronze behind the duo and bettered her own existing national record by nearly four seconds. It was a significant performance, particularly given the quality of the field and the pace at which the race unfolded. Not to be outdone, her teammate Ankita Dhyani secured a huge personal best of 9:19.24 while finishing fourth, giving India further encouragement in the event.

In the other events, clear favourite Ancy Sojan in the women’s long jump, with a season’s best of 6.88m, was expected to walk away with the gold. But perhaps the wet runway did not allow her to produce her best. She was eventually pipped by Huang of China, who jumped 6.55m to Ancy’s 6.53m. Huang saved her winning leap for the last attempt, adding another layer of drama to an already closely fought contest.

The men’s high jump produced another agonising near-miss. Sarvesh Kushare was unlucky to tie with Chinese Taipei’s Chao-Hsuan Fu. Both cleared 2.25m, but while Sarvesh did it in his second attempt, his opponent managed the same height at the first attempt. That single difference was enough to decide the colour of the medal.

Tejaswin Shankar, with 7,957 points, became India’s first decathlete to win back-to-back Asian Games medals but was unlucky to falter in his discus throw and narrowly missed out on the gold to Yuma Maruyama of Japan, who finished with 8,123 points. China’s Chen Xinghua was second with 8,012.

For Shankar, however, the medal represented another important landmark. The decathlon is one of athletics’ most demanding disciplines, requiring an athlete to maintain a high level across ten events, and his consistency over two Asian Games is an achievement in itself.

The pleasant surprise, came late in the day when the Indian girls were convincing in winning their 4x100m heat, with Himani Bhadra and Abhinaya Rangarajan showing excellent form. The relay quartet looked composed and confident, and their performance offered a tantalising glimpse of what could still come from Indian women’s sprinting.

This could well be the event that will give India a gold. And so can Avinash Sable, who is trying to retain his gold in the men’s steeplechase.

The expectation will be high, but so will the opportunity. India has already shown that its athletes can compete deep into the medal positions against some of Asia’s strongest performers. What has been missing so far is that final push, the one performance that converts a silver or bronze into gold.

India enters a new day full of hope with Gulveer, already a silver medallist in the 10,000m, and Younis Shah in the 1500m, Sable in the steeplechase and Murali Sreeshankar in the men’s long jump.

The medals may not yet be gold, but the performances suggest India is knocking firmly on the door. And in athletics, sometimes the difference between being a champion and being just short of one is measured in centimetres, hundredths of a second or one perfectly timed jump.