U20 Asian Athletics: India wins gold in men's & women's steeplechase

New Delhi: Ekta Dey and Ranvir Singh won gold in the 3,000m steeplechase events at the 21st Asian U20 Athletics Championships in their respective gender categories on Thursday in Dubai. After Ekta made a time of 10:31.92 and Singh 9:22.62, both of their gold brought India's gold tally to 3, IANS reported.

The third gold was Anurag Singh Kaler, who finished first in the shot-put event earlier.

In the morning session, race walker Aarti set the ball rolling, bagging a hard-fought bronze medal in the women's 10,000m.

In the morning session on the day, race walker Aarti won a hard-fought bronze in the women's 10,000m in a time of 47:45.33. This surpassed World U20 Athletics Championships qualification time.

Throwers later added three more medals, including the gold in shot-put mentioned above. Gold winner Anurag fought against South Korean Park Sihoon for the yellow medal. He made a distance of 19.23m in his third throw after throwing 18.44 and 18.69 in the first two throws. He made a distance of 18.79 in the 6th and final throw. Though Park Sihoon also threw the best of 19.23, Anurag averaged the best in all his throws.

Defending champion Siddharth Choudhary settled for bronze with a throw of 19.02m scored in the second attempt. His other throws were below the 19m mark.

Amanat Kamboj, who has been practising at Patiala's National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Punjab and supported by REC Limited, added silver to the team's tally. Her best throw was 50.45m.

Aman Choudhary also won bronze in the men's 400m with a timing of 47.53 seconds.