MNREGA worker Ram Baboo wins bronze in race walk; Neeraj Chopra wins gold

Hangzhou: Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra became only the second man in Asian Games history to defend his gold with a season's best effort of 88.88m in the javelin throw event marred by controversy here on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old Chopra sent his spear to 88.88m, his fourth career-best throw, in his fourth effort to clinch the gold. He had won a gold in the 2018 Asian Games with a throw of 88.06m.

Before Chopra, Pakistan's Muhammad Nawaz won gold in the 1951 and 1954 editions of the Asian Games.

Chopra's compatriot Kishore Jena took the silver with a throw of 87.54m in a 1-2 finish for India. Jena thus also sealed his berth for the Paris Olympics. The qualification mark was 85.50.

The men's 4x400m relay team of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh won the gold for the first time after 61 years with a time of 3:01.58. They emulated the feat of the 1962 Asian Games 4x400m relay quartet of Milkha Singh, Makhan Singh, Daljit Singh and Jagdish Singh.

After 1962, India had won seven silver medals in men's 4x400m relay -- 1970, 1974, 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2018.

But, India lost the crown in women’s 4x400m relay after five successive gold medals from 2002 to 2018 Asian Games as the quartet of Aishwarya Mishra, Subha Venkatesan, Prachi and Vithya Ramraj finished second behind Bahrain with a time of 3:27.85.

Avinash Sable (5000m), Harmilan Bains (800m) and the women's 4x400m relay team clinched a silver each, while the 35km race walk mixed team of Ram Baboo and Manju Rani won a bronze in the morning.

Story of Ram Baboo

Ram Baboo's is an amazing story of guts and glory. Hailing from a very poor family, even four years back, Ram Babu was a registered MNREGA worker, who dug ponds and did manual labour for peanuts to make both ends meet. Post COVID-19, there were huge financial constraints and he worked as a waiter in a restaurant to keep the passion for walking alive. On Wednesday, it was his turn to walk his way towards glory and a life where he would be able to forget the abject penury that he faced all these years.

Sable, the Army Man and Patriot

Armyman Sable, who clocked 13:21.09, even saluted after crossing the finish line.

"I came to remember my army discipline. This season, my performance was not that good but I have been given full support by the government, so I wanted to end with my best effort." Sable's patriotism was in ample display as he picked up the national flag thrown from the stands for him to celebrate and touched it on to his forehead. He even apologised for not being able to catch the national flag when it was thrown. It was clearly not his fault.

"I would like to apologise for that. I was tired and did not have much energy after the race and maybe because of that I could not get hold of the national flag properly.

"I am a soldier and I would never want to see our national flag falling down because it's being taught in army training that if we need to give our lives for the country we must do that with a smile." With the seven medals India won in the last day of track and field competitions, India ended their Hangzhou Asian Games athletics competition with 29 medals, the second best after the 34 in the inaugural 1961 edition. India won 20 medals in the 2018 Asian Games.

Javelin controversy

On the javelin field, a huge controversy erupted during Chopra's event when his first attempt was not measured, prompting legendary Anju Bobby George to accuse the Chinese officials of "trying to cheat" and "deliberately targeting the Indians".

It seemed Chopra had comfortably cleared the 85m mark but to his surprise the effort was not recorded by the officials apparently because they could not spot the landing point of his javelin at the 'Big Lotus' stadium.

It did not, however, matter much to Chopra in the end as he was able to shrug-off the chaos on the field and went on to produce his season's best.

But it was not an easy win for Chopra as he had to face an intense and stirring duel with compatriot Jena who, in fact, was leading after the halfway mark of three throws.

But Chopra stamped his class with a 88.88m throw in the fourth round to seal the issue. Chopra and Jena joined the celebrations of the men's 4x400m relay runners with the national flag wrapped around them.

Sable added another silver in the men's 5000m to his 3000m steeplechase gold, clocking 13 minute 21.09 seconds, behind Balew Birhanu Yemataw (13:17.40) of Bahrain.

Harmilan clocked 2:03.75 to win a silver in women's 800m race. She had also won a silver in the 1500m race.

"I will say to my mom now that I have two Asian Games medals," Harmilan said.

Harmilan's mother Madhuri Singh had won an 800m silver in the 2002 Asian Games.