Jakarta: Tajinder Pal Singh Toor lived up to expectations as he won the shot put gold in style on the opening day of the Asian Games athletics competition at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium here on Saturday.
Tajinder clinched the gold with a Games record of 20.75m which he achieved in his fifth attempt. He also bettered the national record of 20.69 set by Om Prakash Karhana in 2012.
China's Yang Liu (19.52) finished second, while Kazakhstan’s Ivan Ivanov (19.40) came third.
Tajinder was in the lead right from the start with his first attempt of 19.96.
"This medal is my biggest achievement because a lot of sacrifices have been made. For the last two years my father has been battling with cancer. My family though never let me get distracted. They allowed me to chase my dream," he said.
The 23-year-old Tajinder, who had the season’s best of 20.24m, had won a sliver in the Asian Championships at Bhubaneswar last year.
Hima, Anas in final
Hima Das and Nirmala Sheoran made it to the women’s 400m final. Hima came second in heat 1 with a second-place finish behind Asian record holder Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain. Salwa topped the heat with a Games record 50.86 seconds, while Hima clocked 51.
Nirmala won her heat with a time of 54.09.
Keralite Muhammed Anas and Arokia Rajiv qualified for the men’s 400m final. National record holder Anas won the second semifinal with 45.30, while Rajiv came second in the first semifinal with 46.08.
Shreeshankar through
Keralite M Sreeshankar qualified for the men’s long jump final. He finished third in the qualifiers with an effort of 7.83m. The 18-year-old has a personal best of 7.99m.
Yuki Hashioka of Japan topped the list with a jump of 8.03m, while Jianan Wang (7.89m) of China finished second. The final is slated for Sunday night.
Dutee Chand topped her heat to qualify for the women’s 100m semifinals. She clocked 11.38 seconds.
Sarita finishes fifth
Sarita Singh finished fifth in women’s hammer throw with an effort of 62.03m. China’s Na Luo won the gold with a throw of 71.42m while compatriot Zheng Wang (70.86) clinched the sliver. Japan’s Hitomi Katsuyama (62.95) took the bronze.