It was a day of breaking records as Jyothi Yarraji (women’s 60m hurdles) and Tajinderpal Toor (men’s shotput) both broke the national marks on their way to gold at the Asian Athletics Indoor Championships in Tehran, Iran on Saturday.
Harmilan Bains, the double Asian Games silver medallist, had secured the first gold medal of the day when she finished 4:29.55 in the women’s 1500m, a full 4.5 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, Kyrgyzstan's Kalil Kyzy Ainuska (4:35.29). The bronze medal was won by Kazakhstan's Bolatbekkyzy Aiana with a timing of 4:37.20.
Yarraji bettered her own efforts from the previous year, when she ran 8.13s to win silver in the 2023 edition. This time round, her effort of 8.12s was enough to win gold, ahead of Japan's Asuka Tereda (8.21s) and Lui Lai Yiu of Hong Kong (8:26s).
Yarraji is the current reigning Asian outdoor champion in the 100m hurdles event and also won silver at the Asian Games last year in Hangzhou, China.
Later in the day, Toor broke a long-standing national record set by Vikas Gowda in 2005 when he threw a distance of 19.72m to win gold in men’s shotput.
The two-time Asian Games gold medallist needed only two throws to achieve this feat and crossed the 19m mark in both attempts.
The chance of a double podium for India was missed as Dhanveer registered a best throw of 18.59m. The silver went to Kazakhstan's Ivan Ivanov (19.08m) and Iran's Mehdi Saberi (18.74m) won bronze.
In other results, Ajay Kumar Saroj finished sixth in the men’s 1500m final with a timing of 3:52.56 while Tejas Shirohe finished in fifth place in the men’s 60m hurdles final with a timing of 7.80s.
In the women’s long jump final, Shaili Singh (6.27m) and Nayana James (6.23m) finished in fifth and sixth places respectively.