Abhishek Pal opened India's medal account at the Asian Athletics Championships with a bronze on Wednesday. Pal clocked 29:33.26s to finish behind Ren Tazawa (29.18.44) of Japan and Koech Kimutai Shadrack (29:31.63) of Kazakhstan.
The athletes strung out after two laps and Japan's Ren Tazawa took the pole position. He led the pack throughout to pocket the gold with a time of 29:18.44s. Kazakhstan's Shadrack Kimutai Koech won silver with a time of 29:31.63s.
Pal and compatriot Gulveer Singh stayed behind the leading runners for almost the entire race. Pal, however, pushed hard in the last lap and overtook Japan's Yuto Imae to move into the third spot.
"I saw Imae slowing down in the last two laps. I gradually tracked him down and pushed hard in the last 400m to win bronze," Pal said after the race. "The weather was okay at the start of the race but was unbearable in the second half."
It was a sweet victory for Pal as he had finished seventh in the 10,000m at the 2019 Doha edition of the Asian Athletics Championships in Qatar. "The bronze in the 10,000m has added to my confidence. I should do better in the 5,000m race," Pal added.
Seasoned javelin thrower Annu Rani missed the podium as she finished fourth with a throw of 59.10m. Annu, who won silver in the 2019 edition of the event, has not crossed the 60m mark since winning bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Japan's Marina Saito won gold with a throw of 61.67m, while Liu Shiying of China clinched silver with a throw of 61.51m. Sri Lanka's Nadeesha Dilhani won bronze with a throw of 60.93m.
In the women's 1500m, India's Lili Das finished seventh with a time of 4:27.61. Indian quarter-milers gave a good account of themselves in the preliminary rounds of the 400m as Aishwarya Misha clocked 53.58s to win her heat and advance to the final scheduled for Thursday. Rajesh Ramesh (45.91s) and Muhammad Ajmal (45.75s) were impressive in the men's 400m semis on Wednesday. Both have qualified for the final.
In decathlon, Tejaswin Shankar won the long jump, high jump and 400m events to lead the field with 4124 points at the end of the first day.