Asian Junior Atheltics meet: India finish third with 17 medals

India ended their campaign at the 17th Asian Junior Championships by finishing third with 17 overall medals at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on 6 June.

It was a dream run for 17-year-old Das from Triveni in Hoogly district (West Bengal) as she clocked 2:06.64 seconds to win the women's 800m, her second Gold in the Championships.

The icing on the cake came from the women's 4x400m relay team which clinched the last Gold for India in this championships with PT Usha's protege Jisna Mathew romping home in style. The Indian women's relay quarter of Jisna, Shaharbana Shidiqui Thadian Parambil, V Subha and George Linet clocked 3:43.57 seconds to take the top honours.

Rio aspirant Neeraj Chopra won the Silver in the men's javelin with a best throw of 77.60 metres, behind Japan's Sado Juniya (77.97m).

The Indian men 4x400m relay team, comprising of Kiran Murugan, Pankaj Malik, Harsh Kumar and Amoj Jacob finished with a Silver, clocking 3:12.12 seconds, behind Thailand's 3:11.59 seconds.

Earlier, in the men's 10,000m, Abhishek Pal bagged the Silver with a timing of 31:24.06 seconds while compatriot Kishen Narsi Tadvi took the Bronze medal with a timing of 32:07.12 seconds.

The 2015 Asian Youth Championships gold medallist Beant Singh finished fourth in the men's 800m, clocking 1:53.16 seconds.

India's medal tally includes seven gold, four silver and six bronze. With this, India has moved up to the third ranking - up from the previous fifth. At the 2014 edition of the Championships - held in Taipei - the Indian team won 12 medals, including 2 Gold, 6 Silver and 4 bronze in the previous Championships held at Taipei in 2014.

Japan topped the overall medal tally with 14 gold medals while China followed with 11 gold medals.

--ANI