Taiwan Athletics Open: Jyothi Yarraji secures gold with a dramatic finish in the final

Indian athletes continued their solid performance on the international circuit and won six gold medals on the first day of the Taiwan Athletics Open in Chinese Taipei on Saturday.

Asian champion Jyothi Yarraji clinched her second gold in 15 days, overcoming a tough challenge by surging from behind to narrowly defeat two Japanese hurdlers and win the 100m hurdles title.

Following her, the 110m men's hurdler Tejas Shirse has also clinched a gold medal and clocked a new season best timing of 13.52s despite a small collision with one of the hurdles in the way.

Earlier, Pooja (1500m) and Abdualla Aboobacker (Triple Jump) have also clinched the titles in a less competitive field, taking the Indian medal tally to four gold medals.

A brilliant final Push

The women's 100m final was one of the most competitive finals on the first day of the competition, having three sub-13s runners  - Two from Japan and one from India (Jyothi Yarraji).

Jyothi, who was second best in the list based on season best, finished the preliminary round at the top with a good time of 13.18s, that too under a lot of pressure from heavy rain.

However, in the final, Japan's Chisato Kiyayama had a brilliant start and was on her way to clinch the gold medal, but her dreams were shattered by Jyothi, who came from behind to clinch the title with a time of 12.99s.

To end the day on a high, the Indian sprint relay teams came into action and clinched the gold medals in their respective 4*100m relay finals.

Firstly, the women's relay team of V Sudheeksha, Abhinaya Rajarajan, Sneha SS, and Nithya Gandhe set a new championship record of 44.07s to clinch the gold medal.

Then, the men's relay team of Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar, and Amlan Borgohain, leaving behind their scars from the Asian Championship, took the gold medal with a solid 38.75s.