Report by Paridhi Agarwal
The 2023 Asian Under 20 Athletics Championship is a competition for Asian under-20 athletes. It is the 20th edition of the competition. For this year, Athletes born between 2004 and 2007 participated in 44 events. The Asian U20 Athletics Championship was held from 4 June 2023 to 7 June 2023 in Yecheon, South Korea. Japan topped the event with 23 medals-14 golds, 4 silvers and 5 bronze. China came with second 11 golds, 5 silvers and 3 bronze medals. India had matched China with a total number of 19 medals but were placed third as they won fewer gold medals. India won 6 golds, 7 silvers and 3 bronze medals. In the previous edition of the U20 Asian Athletics Championship, which was held in Japan in 2018. India concluded that event with 17 medals, of which 5 were gold, 2 silver and 10 bronze medals.
Gold Medals
· Rezoana Mallick Heena (women’s 400m)- She won an individual gold medal with her second-best timing of 53.32s.
· Laxita Vinod Sandila (women’s 1500m)- She won India’s second gold medal in the 1500 m race with a time of 4:24.23s
· Rezoana Mallick Heena/Anushka Dattaray Kumbhar/ Riya Nitin Patil/ Kanista Teena (women’s 4x400m relay)- They bagged a gold medal for the country
· Siddharth Choudhary (men’s shot put)- 17-year-old Siddharth Choudhary logged 19.52m in men’s shot put (A track and field event involving throwing a heavy ball, the shot- as far as possible)
· Bharatpreet Singh (men’s discus throw)- He registered a throw of 55.66m for the top step of the podium.
· Sunil Kumar (men’s decathlon)- He won the men’s decathlon event with 7003 points which was his personal best.
Silver Medals
- Susmita (women’s long jump)
- Shivam Lohakare (men’s javelin throw)
- Sharuk Khan (men’s 3000m steeplechase)
- Bushra Khan Gauri (Women’s 3000m)
- Pooja (women’s high jump)
- Shivaji Parashu Madappagoudra (men’s 5000m race)
- Deepak Singh/Sharan Megavarnam/Rihan Choudhary/Navpreet Singh (men’s 4x400m relay)
Bronze Medals
- Antima Pal (women’s 5000m)
- Shakeel (men’s 800m)
- Rezoana Mallick Heena/Navpreet Singh/Anushka Dattaray Kumbhar/Deepak Singh (mixed 4x400m relay)
- Abinaya Rajarajan/Akshaya/Tamanna/Nayana Kokare (women’s 4×100 relay)
- Vallip Hima Teja/Arijit Rana/Mohammad Reyan Basha/ Dondapati Mrutyam Jayaram (men’s 4×100m relay)
- Mehdi Hasan (men’s 1500m event)
