JOIN USMiddle-distance runner Jessy Joseph and hurdler Meghana Shetty won silver medals for India on the third day of the 16th Asian junior athletics championships here on Saturday.
The coveted gold medal eluded Indians for the third consecutive day as Jessy, a trainee of PT Usha, had to settle for a silver despite her best efforts.
After coming through a testing heats in the morning, Jessy battled it out with Japan’s Ryoko Hirano in the final. In a tough race, Jessy was just two-hundredths of a second behind the Japanese (2:06.75 to 2:06.77), claiming the silver.
India’s Archana Adhav joined Jessy on the podium with her third place finish in 2:09.11.
Meghana returned a personal best of 14.09 seconds for the silver in the 100M hurdles, behind Japan’s Mako Fukube (13.98).
To the disappointment of everyone in the Indian camp, discus thrower Sachin Dalal Singh failed to get a medal.
Having recently set a national junior record of 58.11M at Chennai, Sachin was expected to make waves in Taipei but he could not perform as expected and managed only 55.41M to finish fourth.
Chinese athletes were 1-2 in long jump with Li Xiao-Hong taking the gold with a leap of 6.27M, followed by Rong Wang in 6.15M.
China and Japan are leading in the medals table with 10 gold medals each at the end of third and penultimate day of the championships.