Asian U-18 Athletics Championship 2023: India bag 10 medals in 2 days

India won 10 medals in the first two days of the Asian U-18 Athletics Championship 2023.

Priyanshu won gold in the men's 1500m as India won four medals on the opening day of the 2023 Asian U18 Athletics Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Priyanshu finished ahead of fellow Indian Rahul Sarnaliya, who earned silver in the men's 1500m with a time of 3:59.43.

Aarti and Mubassina won bronze medals. Aarti won bronze in the women's 5000m racewalk, while Mubassina Mohammed won bronze in the women's long jump. Aarti began India's medal count in the continental event with a time of 24:29.14, taking the last podium spot ahead of Kushbu Yadav, who finished fourth.

Mubassina, the first athlete from Lakshadweep to earn a national medal, took bronze with a best effort of 5.90m.

Reozana is the 400m champion. Reozana Mallick and Shireen Ahluwalia won their heats to get to the women's 400m final. The former was by far the quickest runner throughout all heats, recording an astounding 53.65s.

Sharan Megavarnam and Navpreet Singh advanced to the men's 400m final after winning their respective heats. Navpreet ran the quickest time of the day, clocking 47.75 seconds.

A few athletes missed out on a podium finish by the narrowest of margins. Shireen Ahluwalia finished fourth in the women's 400m in 57.19 seconds, the same time as compatriot Rezoana.

In the men's 400m event, India's Sharan Megavarnam finished fourth in 48.26 seconds, missing out on a medal by roughly 0.30 seconds while the bronze medalist ran 47.97s.

Finally, Himanshu finished fourth (43:59:60) in the 10000m Racewalk, after fellow countryman Babendra. India's medal tally now stands at 10 (3 Gold + 3 Silver + 4 Bronze) after Day 2.

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Asian U-18 Athletics Championship: About the Event

The Asian Youth Athletics Championships (U18) is a biannual continental athletics championship for Asian athletes run by the Asian Athletics Association. It is a youth category event available to athletes aged fifteen to seventeen, and it was first staged in 2015.

The event was the fourth continental athletics tournament for that age group, following the South American, Oceanian, and African affairs. The inaugural edition took place when such tournaments were gaining popularity, with the first African championships staged in 2013 and the European Athletics Youth Championships set for the following year.

Dahlan Jumaan al-Hamad, president of the Asian Athletics Association, stated in March 2014 that the introduction of the championships would help improve the grassroots growth of the sport in Asia and raise the relevance of continental-level competition among the region's countries.