Kujur and Gurindervir advance from 100m heats as India earns medals at Asian Games
Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh progressed from the men’s 100m heats at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday, while India also collected a bronze in the women’s 10,000m and a silver in the mixed 4x400m relay.
Kujur finished third in Heat 1 in 10.36 seconds and Gurindervir clocked 10.38 to place second in Heat 4; both ran on Thursday at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and secured progression by finishing inside the top three of their respective heats. Kujur recovered from a slow start, accelerating over the final 25 metres to finish behind Thailand’s Puripol Boonson (9.95) and China’s Keli Zeng (10.22). In Heat 4, Gurindervir finished behind Oman’s Malham Al Balushi, who won that race in 10.29 seconds.
Gurindervir’s qualification capped a season in which he set the Indian 100m national record of 10.09 seconds at the Federation Cup in May. Kujur’s personal best stands at 10.14 seconds and the article describes him as India’s second-fastest 100m runner. The posted heat summary for Heat 4 listed the top three as Al Balushi (Oman) — 10.29s; Gurindervir Singh (India) — 10.38s; Taftian Hassan (Iran) — 10.46s.
Seema delivered India’s first athletics medal of the day by winning bronze in the women’s 10,000m final, her timing recorded as 32.50.05. Coverage accompanying the result noted: "Seema has done the country proud by winning the bronze. She kept a steady pace throughout, did not get fazed by the legendary Yavi." Video of the race was credited to Sonyliv in the original report.
India added silver in the mixed 4x400m relay as the quartet clocked 3:14.46; Bahrain took gold in 3:12.87 and Vietnam finished third in 3:14.54. India had finished second in its qualifying heat and the podium in Nagoya continued the country’s mixed relay sequence from previous Asian Games: gold in Jakarta in 2018 and silver in Hangzhou in 2023. India edged Vietnam by 0.08 seconds at the finish.
In the women’s triple jump final, Asha Ilango recorded a best of 13.83m to finish fourth, tied on distance with China’s Yi Li but losing out on countback; Ilango’s final attempt reached 13.59m while Yi Li’s best was 13.79m. Niharika Vashisht placed 10th in the same event.
In the heptathlon, Pooja posted 11.44m to finish fourth in the shot put and Anamika Aneesh recorded 11.15m for eighth place in that discipline. The pair then ran the 200m, with Anamika clocking 25.96 seconds and Pooja finishing in 26.27 seconds.
Both Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh have now secured places in the men’s 100m semifinals at the Asian Games and will contest that next stage of the competition.
