Asian Athletics Championships: Late surge helps Abhishek Pal pip Yuto Imae to bronze in the 10,000m event

Japan dominates Asian distance running, occupying 98 of the top 100 spots. Abhishek Pal, 189th in the list, defied the odds to win 10,000m bronze at the 25th Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok. Gulveer Singh finished fifth. Japan’s Marina Saito shocked China’s Olympic champion Liu Shiying for javelin gold. Annu Rani (4th) and Tejaswin Shankar (leading decathlon) also performed well. Rajesh Ramesh, Muhammed Ajmal and Aishwarya Mishra qualified for 400m final. Lili Das (7th) disappointed in 1500m..

The Japanese are the kings of distance running in Asia. They are so strong that they occupy 98 of the top 100 rungs in this year’s men’s 10,000m Asian list.

But Abhishek Pal, who is in the 189th spot in the list and who could not win gold in the 10,000m in the recent Federation Cup and the Inter-State Nationals, came up with some fine end-game heroics to outwit Japan’s Yuto Imae and take the 10,000m bronze at the 25th Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok on Wednesday.

It was India’s first medal at this Asians and Abhishek’s first major international medal. Federation Cup champion Gulveer Singh, who had beaten Abhishek twice this season, finished fifth in the event where Japan’s Asian leader Ren Tazawa came with a fine piece of front running to take the gold.

“I saw Imae slowing down in last two laps. I gradually tracked him down and pushed hard in the last 400m to win bronze,” said Abhishek.

Japan’s Marina Saito pulled off what is probably the opening day’s biggest upset, shocked China’s Olympic champion Liu Shiying for the women’s javelin gold. Annu Rani, silver medallist at the last Asians in Doha who was forced to break her training in Germany and miss competitions in Europe this season over visa issues, finished fourth.

Tejaswin Shankar, the high jump national record-holder, was in the lead in decathlon after the opening day’s events. Shankar, who topped the 400m (49.57s), long jump (7.48m) and high jump (2.14m), had a 100-point advantage over Thailand’s Suttisak Singkhon, the 2018 Asian Games silver medallist and 2017 Asian champion.

In the 400m, Rajesh Ramesh (45.91s) and Muhammed Ajmal (45.76) in the men’s section and Aishwarya Mishra (53.58s) in women’s qualified for the final.