In the Taiwan Open international athletics competition held here on Saturday, India won six gold medals, including the women’s 100-meter hurdles, which Asian champion Jyothi Yarraji won with yet another strong performance.

Yarraji, the national record holder, won the gold in the Taipei Municipal Stadium with a time of 12.99 seconds, ahead of the silver and bronze finishes of Japanese runners Asuka Terada (13.04 seconds) and Chisato Kiyoyama (13.10 seconds).

On May 29, Yarraji, 25 year old, took home the gold medal at the Asian Championships in South Korea, where she finished in 12.96 seconds. 12.78 seconds is her national record.

Tejas Shirse, another national record holder, won gold in the men’s 110-meter hurdles with a career-best timing of 13.52 seconds.

The silver and bronze medals went to local athletes Kuei-Ru Chen (13.75 seconds) and Hsieh Yuan-kai (13.72 seconds).

The national record for the 23-year-old Shirse is 13.41 seconds.

India’s top 4×100-meter relay team, consisting of Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar, and Amlan Borgohain, took home the gold with a time of 38.75 seconds, which was only 0.6 seconds slower than the national record of 38.69 seconds set by the same team at the National Relay Carnival in Chandigarh earlier this year.

It did not, however, coincide with the team’s journey to the Tokyo World Championships.

The World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China in May have already qualified 14 nations for the World Championships in September, with only two spots left. Right now, Nigeria and the Netherlands are vying for the two spots with 38.20 seconds each.

With a time of 44.06 seconds, the Indian team consisting of Sudheeksha Vadluri, Sneha Sathyanarayana Shanuvalli, Abinaya Rajarajan, and Nithya Gandhe took home the gold in the women’s 4×100-meter relay.

The quartet of Archana S, Dhanalakshmi, Hima Das, and Dutee Chand set the national record in this event in 2021 with a time of 43.37 seconds.

Pooja and Abdulla Aboobacker also took home gold in the women’s 1500m and men’s triple jump, respectively.

Aboobacker’s personal best of 17.19 meters was far higher than his 16.21-meter jump.

Pooja, the silver medallist from last month’s Asian Championships in South Korea, won the gold with a time of 4 minutes, 11.63 seconds. She recorded a personal best time of 4:09.52 in 2023.

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