Toor, Parul win gold, Shaili silver at Asian Athletics Championships

In Bangkok even though timing was not her best, she said she ran according to the field she had.

Tajinder Pal Singh Toor

CHENNAI: There is something about Tajinder Pal Singh Toor. The shot-putter always has great throws, including national records, during domestic competitions. But somehow he manages to not throw the distance in competitions abroad. The Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok is another example. However, he managed to win gold. India's gold on Friday was Parul Chaudhury in the 3000m SC. India now have five gold, including the three they won on Thursday.

Once again the heartening part was to see another young star doing well. Long-jumper Shaili Singh won silver at her first senior Asian meet. Toor defended his Asian title on Friday but his mark was way off his personal best of 21.77m achieved less than a month ago. He managed to throw the iron ball to 20.23m in his second attempt after which he did not take part in the competition.

“I injured myself just after we reached Bangkok,” said Toor, explaining the reason for not being able to throw well and complete his series. “I have strained my muscle in the groin region and I did not want to aggravate it. That’s why I did not take part.” This is not the first time Toor has had groin injury issues. He missed the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games because of the same injury.

Toor, however, felt this should not hamper his participation at the Worlds next month. “I should be fine in eight-ten days,” he said during a zoom meet organized by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). “I think this should not be a worry and definitely should not be a problem for the Asian Games in September-October.” Saberi Mehdi (19.98m) of Iran won silver followed by Ivan Ivanov (19.87m) of Kazakhstan.

Steeple-chaser Chaudhury added a second gold. She had been quite consistent over the last few months and she has said that her training with middle and long distance coach Scott Simmons had helped her improve. The training in the US also helped her. “Since working with Simons, I have managed to improve my timing and that shows that what we are working on is giving good results,” she said. 

“I had improved my personal best a couple of months ago.” She has been training at Colorado Springs in the US for about three months and that helped her improve her timing in both pet 3000m steeplechase (9:29.51s) and 5000m (15:10.35s).

In Bangkok even though timing was not her best, she said she ran according to the field she had. “My target was gold and I ran according to the field today and that’s why the timing was this,” she said.

Shaili, who had a severe bout of Covid for the second time earlier this year, is still struggling for full fitness after early jumps. Even on Friday, she had first two good jumps and struggled. Even Shaili admitted that after her illness she and her coach are working on her fitness but at the same time she was elated to win a medal on debut. “Really happy to have won the first Asian championship medal,” she said. Her coach Robert Bobby George told this daily from Bangkok that she is improving and a bit of more work needs to be done. Japan’s Sumire Hata won gold with a monstrous 6.97m jump (sixth attempt).

“I am happy with her performance and her mark of 6.54m (first attempt) was good,” he said. “I was expecting some 6.70m but this is not bad. She was also confident of achieving that mark. We are working on her rhythm after the first two jumps and over a period of time we will be able to take care of that. By the Asian Games she will be much better.”

On Shaili going to the World Championships on Road to Budapest ranking, Robert said they will assess the situation and after discussing with AFI they will decide. “She is young and she can compete later also. There is no hurry. We will focus on the Asian Games,” he said.