- Arpinder Singh won a gold medal in the triple jump event with a best effort of 16.77m.
- The Punjab athlete clinched India’s first gold medal in the triple jump event at the Asian Games in 48 years.
Arpinder Singh ended India's 48-year long wait for a gold in triple jump at the Asian Games on Wednesday. Arpinder produced his best jump of 16.77m in his third attempt to clinch the yellow metal.
He pipped Uzbekistan's Ruslan Kurbanov, who took the silver medal with a personal best jump of 16.62 metres. The bronze medal went to China's Cao Shuo, who jumped 16.56 metres.
Arpinder said he had come into the Asian Games looking to break the national record which belongs to Renjith Maheshwary (17.30m).
It’s gold, so it’s okay but I wanted to do better than the national record. I was dehydrated after three jumps, that’s why there were fouls after that. The performance was going up and down. My calves were hurting.Arpinder Singh
Before the 25-year-old Arpinder, the previous Indian triple jump champion at the Asiad was Mohinder Singh Gill in 1970 with an effort of 16.11m.
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AV Rakesh Babu, the other Indian in the fray, was sixth with a best attempt of 16.40 metres.
Arpinder flopped in his first attempt. After the invalid jump, he came back strong with a jump of 16.58 metres in the second attempt which made him the leader after the first two attempts.
Babu, in his second attempt of 16.40, was second behind his compatriot, even as Ruslan till then had his best of 16.28.
Arpinder gained further ascendancy when he came out with a jump of 16.77m. Ruslan too made his best attempt of 16.62 metres. The Uzbek athlete however could not topple Arpinder as the former made attempts of 15.99, 16.43, 16.41 in his final three chances respectively.
Arpinder jumped 16.08 in his fourth attempt before fouling the last two attempts.
China's Cao delivered his best in his sixth and last attempt with a jump of 16.56 to push Japanese Kohei Yamashita to the fourth spot.
Yamashita had fouled his last three attempts. His best of 16.46 came in his third attempt.
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