Asian U18 Athletics: Indian contingent finish with 24 medals

Indian contingent finished with a rich haul of 24 medals at the Asian U18 Athletics Championships 2023 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Sunday. India clinched nine medals on the last day to complete a clinical performance.

Indian athletes won six golds, eleven silvers, and seven bronze medals at the Under-18 championships.

Sprinter Rezoana Mallick Heena led the campaign for India with three medals - two golds (Indian girl's team relay and girls' 400m) and one silver (girls' 200m).

Hurdler from Odisha, Bapi Hansda won the silver medal in the 400m hurdles with a personal best time of 51.38 seconds on the last day and became the first Indian in history to win a silver in the men’s 400m hurdles event at the competition.

Sprinter Abhay Singh faced stern competition from Chinese runners as he won the bronze medal in the boy's 200m with 21.39 secs.

Among other silver medals, Mohur Mukherjee won in the heptathlon, Ritik won in the discus throw with 54.03m and Sumit Rathi won in the 2000m steeplechase with a timing of 5 minutes 58 seconds.

In the medley relay, India finished on the podium in both boys and girls with the girls' team winning gold and the boys' team winning silver. Anupriya won bronze in the girl's shot put with a distance of 16.37m.

India started the campaign by winning four medals, including a gold, on day one. On day two, India added six more medals. The third day saw India winning five more medals and fourth day was the highest-medal winning day with nine medals.

In the 2022 edition at Kuwait, India finished with the same tally of 24 medals - six gold, eleven silver, and seven bronze.