India's top five best performers at Asian Athletics Championships 2025

India won eight gold medals at the Asian Athletics Championships 2025.

The 26th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships concluded on May 31 in Gumi, South Korea, with India producing its second-best medal performance in the competition history. Thanks to its eight golds, India finished second behind China (32) with 24 medals (8 gold, 10 silver, 6 bronze) in the overall tally.

India’s best-ever performance came in the 2017 home edition, where they won 29 medals (10 gold, 6 silver, and 13 bronze) and topped the medal tally. In the last edition in 2023, India had bagged 27 medals with 6 golds. While there was a slight decrease in the overall medal tally in this edition, the gold numbers went up.

Also Read: Asian Athletics Championships 2025 final medal Tally and India’s medal winners

From young Pooja Singh in high jump to veterans like Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary, Indian athletes grabbed the headlines with top performances, few also rewriting National and Asian records along the way. That said, let us look at the India’s five best performances at the recently concluded Asian Athletics Championships 2025.

India’s best performers at Asian Athletics Championships 2025

5) Animesh Kujur

The sprinter from Odisha made headlines after setting a new national record of 20.32 seconds in the 200m final, breaking his previous record of 20.40 seconds. He won bronze and just missed out on the silver medal by a mere 0.01 seconds.

Animesh started slowly, but as the race progressed, he made a good comeback and finished well to win bronze. To put things into perspective, how good is the timing? The 20.32 seconds would have fetched him a place in the Olympics semi-finals. Animesh is just 21 and has been breaking records. One can certainly expect him to do well in the future.

4) Parul Chaudhary

The reigning Asian Games champion in the women’s 5000m, Parul Chaudhary, added two silver medals to her name in Gumi.

In the 3000m steeplechase, she finished second behind former world champion Norah Jeruto, creating a new national record of 9:12.46, bettering her previous record (9:13.39) set earlier this season at the Diamond League in Doha.

This was Parul’s second competition of the season, and she has already bettered the National record and one can expect from her for going sub-9:10 this year at the World Championships.

In the women’s 5000m event, Parul clocked 15:15.33s to win another silver, finishing behind Jeruto, who represented Kenya earlier and has now changed her nationality to Kazakhstan.

3) Vishal TK

The 21-year-old quarter-miler Vishal TK may have missed a medal in the individual 400m, finishing a heartbreaking fourth, but his performance was exceptional at the championships. He clocked 45.57 seconds, to achieve a new personal best and became the second Indian this season to run sub-46 this season.

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What makes this more special is that Vishal made a transition from sprinting to 400m last year, showing immense potential in one year. He also played a crucial role in helping India win silver medal in men’s 4x400m relay pipping China at the last lap.

He ran beautifully in the last leg and covered a lot of distance to help beat China and bag the silver medal for India. He was also the part of the mixed 4x400m team, who won gold.

2) Gulveer Singh

Gulveer Singh completed a 5,000m-10,000 m double at the Asian Athletics championships 2025, making him only the fifth athlete to achieve this feat. He also became the second Indian to win both 5,000m and 10,000m gold medals in a single edition. The national record holder, who had already qualified for the World Championships in 5000m, started strongly by winning the 10,000m gold by clocking 28:38.63.

He then went on to win the 5000m gold as well, clocking 13:24.77. His performance at the Asian Athletics Championships will fetch him a lot of points for the 10,000m, and he will be in a comfortable position to qualify for the World Championships.

1) Pooja Singh

The best performance by an athlete was undoubtedly Pooja Singh. The 18-year-old high jumper bettered her personal best twice by jumping 1.89m to clinch a historic gold at the Asian Championships. She becomes only the second Indian to win a medal at the Asian Championships.

To put things into perspective, 1.89m would have got her silver at the U20 World Athletics Championships. The Olympic bronze medal at Paris went at 1.95m. The last Asian games gold was given at 1.86m. The senior national record is 1.92m. If Pooja remains injury-free, then in no time we can see her breaching the national record. She also created a new U20 National record as well.

Other honourable mentions are Jyothi Yarraji, who clocked 12.97 seconds to win gold in the women’s 100m hurdles and Avinash Sable, who became the Asian Champion in the men’s 3000m steeplechase.

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