BENGAL’S Swapna Barman Becomes First Indian to Win Gold Meda in Asiad’s Heptathlon

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Minister Rajya Vardhan Rathore have complemented Swapna Barman from North Bengal for securing the first position in the Heptathlon at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. She is supported by the GoSports Foundation through the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Program. She has created history by becoming the first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold, a feat achieved despite competing with pain due to a toothache. The 21-year-old Barman logged 6026 points from the seven events competed for two days. En route the title, she won the high jump (1003 points) and javelin throw (872 points) events and finished second-best in shot put (707 points) and long jump (865 points). It was the same event after which she had collapsed during the Asian Athletics Championship last year in Bhubaneswar but despite finishing fourth today, she emerged a champion. Another Indian Purnima Hembram from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district was 18 points behind Japan’s Yuki Yamasaki finishing just ahead of Barman and overall fourth with 5837 points..Before Barman, only Bengal’s Soma Biswas, Karnataka’s J J Shobha and Pramila Aiyappa had returned with a medal from the Asian Games. Meanwhile, Arpinder Singh took the top spot in men’s triple jump and won India’s gold in the event after 48 years. Dutee Chand won her second medal of the Asian Games 2018 as she finished with silver in 200m final. Sharath Achanta Kamal and Manika Batra settled for bronze after losing to Chinese duo in the semi-final of mixed team table tennis. Manjit Singh came from nowhere to snatch the men’s 800m gold for the biggest medal of his life but finals continued to be a riddle for P V Sindhu, taking some sheen off her historic silver at the 18th Asian Games . Unexpected haul of a silver and a bronze in Kurash, an indigenous Central Asian form of wrestling, added to the tally, along with a silver in the debut event of mixed 4x400m relay in athletics.