Sunil Kumar wins decathlon gold at Asian U-20 Athletics Championship

Yecheon (South Korea), Jun 6 (PTI) Competing with a pole vault borrowed from the organisers, Sunil Kumar won the decathlon gold medal with his personal best performance in the Asian U-20 Athletics Championship, here on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old suffered a setback much before stepping out on the track and field when a South Korean airlines and Air India barred him from carrying his pole vault due to “technical issues” relating to the five-metre length of the equipment.

But that did not stop Sunil from bagging the gold as he won 10-event competition with a personal best tally of 7003 points on the penultimate day of the competition.

The Athletics Federation of India had requested the organisers to provide Sunil with a pole as he finished fourth in the event.

Sunil won 100m hurdles, discus throw and javelin throw to make up for the below par show in the other events and secure the gold medal in the gruelling discipline competed over two days.

In women’s high jump, Pooja won a silver after clearing 1.82m. Bushra Khan added another silver in the women’s 3000m race, clocking 9:41.47s.

The Indian women’s 4x100m relay team took bronze with a time of 45.36s.

On the opening day on Sunday, fast-rising Rezoana Mallick Heena and Bharatpreet Singh clinched a gold medal each in women’s 400m and men’s discus throw respectively

Shot putter Siddharth Choudhary added another gold on Monday with a personal best throw of 19.52m.