Taiwan Athletics Open: Nayana James and Ankesh secure gold medals

Indian track and field athletes continued their good show at Taiwan Athletics Open as they added two more golds on final day of the competition, on Sunday. India ended the campaign with a total of seven medals, three gold, three silver and a bronze.

The first medal of the day came when Nayana James made an excellent leap of 6.43m to clinch the women's long jump gold in tricky rainy conditions. This was also her first outdoor international tournament of the year.

This result is significant for her as she finished ahead of the Asian champion, Sumire Hata of Japan (6.37m). Although she could not better her personal best mark (6.67m), she had a good start to the tournament away from home.

In the men's long jump, Aditya had a poor start to his international career as he finished in 5th position with a below-par jump of 7.31m.

Double Podium in 800m

Ankesh Chaudhary continued his good form this season as he took the gold medal in the men's 800m, ahead of another Indian runner, Somnath Chauhan, with a good time under pouring rain on a wet track.

The Federation Cup champion, Ankesh, clocked a time of 1:50.63, while Somnath managed a time of 1:50.88. The third place went to Philippine athlete Hussein Lorana (1:51.37).

Meanwhile, the young pole vaulter Dev Meena had a very good outing in his first senior international event and clinched a silver medal with a jump of 5.10m (=SB) in the men's pole vault final.

Earlier on day one, India had clinched three medals. DP Manu won the gold medal in the men's javelin throw, while Nithya Ramraj (women's 100m hurdles) and VK Vismaya (women's 400m) clinched silver and bronze medals, respectively.