It was a dominant show by Indian jumpers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker as they bagged a historic gold and silver respectively in the men’s triple jump final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
India has won four triple jump medals in the past editions but this is the first time two athletes from the country have got podium finishes.
Mohinder Singh Gill had won a bronze and a silver in 1970 and 1974 editions while Renjith Maheswary and Arpinder Singh had finished third in 2010 and 2014 editions.
It was a toe-to-toe battle between the two Kerala jumpers, with the 25-year-old Eldhose eventually emerging on top following an impressive 17.03m jump in his third attempt to walk away with the gold.
Aboobacker finished close behind with a 17.02m leap in his fifth attempt to take the silver medal.
If it was not for Bermuda’s Jah-Nhai Perinchief (16.92m), three Indians would have finished on the podium as Praveen Chithravel emerged fourth with a jump of 16.89m.
Bronze for Sandeep Kumar, Annu Rani
India’s Sandeep Kumar clocked a personal best time of 38:49.21s to win bronze in the men’s 10,000m race walk final.
Canada’s Evan Dunfee, who set a new Games record and a personal best of 38:36.37s finished first while Australian Declan Tingay grabbed silver after clocking a personal best of 38:42.33s. Another Indian, Amit, however, finished a disappointing ninth (43:04.97s) out of an overall ten competitors.
India was handed another bronze in track and field on Sunday as Annu Rani finished third in the women's javelin throw final with a 60m effort.
She achieved the rare feat of becoming the first Indian female javelin thrower to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games. Two Australians - Kelsey-Lee Barber (64.43m) and Mackenzie Little with a personal best of 64.27m won the gold and silver medal respectively.
Before Rani, Kashinath Naik and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra had won a bronze and a gold in men's javelin throw in the 2010 and 2018 editions respectively.
Unlike Annu, it was not the best of days for another Indian, Shilpa Rani in the javelin throw final. She finished seventh and second last with a 54.62m throw.
Meanwhile, it was a disappointing end for India in the women's 4x100m relay final as the team of sprinters Dutee Chand, Hima Das, Srabani Nanda and Jyothi clocked 43.81s to finish fifth out of eight countries.
The Nigerian team (42.10s) set a new Athletics record and personal best to win gold while England clocked a season's best of 42.41s to bag silver.
It was no different for the Indian men's 4x400m relay team as they clocked 3:05.51s to finish a lowly sixth out of eight countries in the final.
India's representatives in men's javelin throw final - DP Manu and Rohit Yadav also had poor outings. While Manu finished fifth with a best throw of 82.28m, Rohit emerged sixth with a 82.22m effort.
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