Tajinderpal Singh Toor defends shotput title in Asian Athletics Championships 2023

He won gold in the previous edition of the competition in 2019 and a silver prior to that in 2017.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor won gold in men's shotput at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 with a best throw of 20.23m on his second attempt. Toor, who was the defending champion, skipped his remaining attempts due to some issue on his leg as he didn’t want to exacerbate it with the Asian Games around the Corner.

This is his third medal at the Asian Athletics Championships — two gold (2019, 2023) and a Silver (2017). Mehdi Saberi of Iran won the silver medal with a best throw of 19.98m. Ivan Ivanov of Kazakhstan won the bronze medal with a best throw of 19.8m.

The Indian National record holder in shotput recently rewrote the Asian Record with a throw of 21.77m in the Inter-state Championships in June. Tajinderpal Singh Toor also qualified for the World Championships in Budapest.

Toor earlier won the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships held in Kazakhstan in February with a best throw of 19.49m. Compatriot Karanveer Singh finished second with a best throw of 19.37m. The next Major task for Toor will be the World Championships and Asian Games. Toor's Focus would be on defending his Asian Games Gold Medal, qualifying for the World Championships final and also to achieve the Olympic Qualification Distance (21.50m).

India is currently third in the medal tally at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 with five Gold, one silver three bronze medals taking their overall tally to nine medals, just behind China (5 Gold, 7 Silver and 3 Bronze) and Japan (11 Gold, 8 Silver and 5 Bronze). India has already surpassed its last year's gold tally (2).

The other four gold medalists for India are Parul Chaudhary (Women's 3,000m Steeplechase), Ajay Kumar Saroj (Men’s 1,500 M), Abdulla Aboobacker (Men’s Long Jump), and Jyothi Yarraji (Women’s 110 M Hurdles).