Dharun Ayyasamy’s late surge saw him clinch the silver medal in the men’s 400m hurdles at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta on Monday.
The 21-year-old, who hails from Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu, also improved on his own national mark as he clocked a timing of 48.96 seconds to finish behind Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba who clinched the gold with a Games record of 47.66 seconds. Japan’s Takatoshi Abe took the bronze.
This was India’s fourth silver medal from the track events. Hima Das and Mohamad Anas had won the silver medals in women’s and men’s 400m respectively while Dutee Chand blazed to a women’s 100m silver on Sunday evening.
Dharun was trailing Abe till the last 60m stretch but accelerated after the final hurdle to become the first Indian 400m hurdler to register an under 49 seconds timing. He had previously held the national record of 49.45 seconds when he won the Federation Cup gold in Patiala earlier this year.
His compatriot T Santosh Kumar finished fifth with a timing of 49.66 seconds.
Dharun had finished as the second fastest timing in the semi-finals while Santosh Kumar had registered the fifth fastest time then.
In the women’s 400m hurdles event, Anu Raghavan finished fourth with a timing of 56.92 while Jauna Murmu was sixth with a timing of 57.48.
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