Arpinder Singh clinched India’s first men’s triple jump gold in 48 years with a jump of 16.77m in the Asian Games in Jakarta.

Arpinder, who has been without a medal in multi-sporting events since winning a bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, produced a best jump of 16.77m which he came up with in his third attempt. Ruslan Kurbanov of Uzbekistan took the silver with a best jump of 16.62m while Shuo Cao of China was third with an effort of 16.56m.

Arpinder’s mark was, however, well below his season best of 17.09m which he did during the National Inter-State Championships in June, which had put him at number three in the Asian rankings but he didn’t need that on Tuesday. Arpinder has a personal best of 17.17m. He had finished fifth in the 2014 Asian Games.

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India’s last Asian Games gold medal in men’s triple jump had come in 1970 from Mohinder Singh Gill.

(Additional reading: Before Tejaswin Shankar and Vikas Gowda, there was five-time NCAA Champion Mohinder Singh Gill)

Here’s more about the man who took India’s gold medal tally to double digits at the 18th Asian Games.

Date of Birth: December 30, 1992

Event at Asian Games: Triple Jump

Past performance (if any): 5th at Incheon Asian Games (2014)

Best performance so far: Bronze at Glasgow Commonwealth Games (2014), Bronze at Pune Asian Championships (2013)

Brief Description: Arpinder Singh is only member of the men’s athletics field team to have participated at a prior Asian Games event. The 25-year-old finished fifth at Incheon, with a jump of 16.41 metres. Undoubtedly India’s number one triple jumper currently, the National Inter State Championships in Patiala in 2010 was when Arpinder broke onto the scene, finishing second as a 17-year-old. Coach Bedros Bedrossian reckoned before the Asiad that Arpinder was getting back to his best as the triple jumper won the Federation Cup and the Inter-State Championships, the latter with a jump of 17.09 metres. Starting off as a 100 metres sprinter, Arpinder’s failure to qualify for the Rio Olympics will rankle deeply with the ONGC athlete nicknamed ‘Bobby’.