CHENNAI: Indian contingent added three more medals to their tally on the sixth and final day of the Commonwealth Youth Games. With that, India secured 17th place at the event held in Trinidad and Tobago. Australia finished first with 64 medals, including 26 golds, followed by England and Scotland, who finished second and third respectively.
Asha Kiran Barla won a silver medal in the 800m with a timing of 2:04.99s, falling short of her personal best. A promising athlete from Jharkhand won her second medal at the youth level after winning the gold medal at the 2022 Asian U18 Athletic Championship in Kuwait. “I am happy to win. Because we came all the way from India to win the medals for the country and I am going back with one,” Barla told this daily from Trinidad and Tobago.
“Even before we came here, I had decided that I want to better my personal best timing, even if I didn’t win the medal. I came close to beating my personal best, but I am happy that I won the medal,” Barla added. Coming from remote areas of Jharkhand, she struggled to even get a pair of running shoes, but help from her family, school teacher and coach Aashu Bhatia helped her overcome all obstacles. After the success at the youth games, the 16-year-old aims to represent India at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Other than Barla, Shoan Ganguly also won the silver medal in the 400m individual medley. The 18-year-old surpassed Aryan Nehra’s timing of 4:27:62 from the nationals to bag a silver medal. On the same day, in the girl’s shotput, Anupriya threw the iron ball 15.62m in her third attempt to claim the third spot behind South Africa and Australia.
In the women’s high jump, Haryana’s Pooja secured the bronze medal, while also achieving her new personal best with a 1.75m leap. In Javelin, Arjun finished third to win the bronze medal, after South Africa’s Willem Jansen and England’s Tom Rutter.