Asian Games 2018: Arpinder Singh, Swapna Barman clinch historic gold in triple jump and Heptathlon event

Arpinder Singh and Swapna Barman added more glitter to India’s campaign at the 18^th Asian Games with two gold medals in the men’s triple jump and women’s Heptathlon event respectively.

While Arpinder clinched India’s first medal in 48 years, Swapna became the first Indian to win a Heptathlon gold at the Asiad.

25-year-old Arpinder, who last won a medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, scored 16.77m in the third attempt to clinch the gold. He, in the process, became the first Indian to win the yellow metal since Mohinder Singh Gill in 1970.

Also Read: Asian Games 2018: Dutee Chand clinch silver in women’s 200m

Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Kurbanov won the silver with a score of 16.62m, while Shuo Cao of China came third after jumping 16.56m.

Meanwhile, the 21-year-old Barman scored a total of 6026 points in seven events to clinch the gold.

Considered to be the toughest of all athletics events, Heptathlon consists 100m race, high jump, shot put, 200m race, long jump, javelin throw and 800m race.

#SwapnaBarman wins first ever GOLD MEDAL for #India in #Heptathlon at #AsianGames & she is only the Fifth Women to cross 6000 points! And she did all this fighting great pain for last three days! Salute!

Congrats #TeamIndiaAthletics for 5th Gold in #AsianGames2018 pic.twitter.com/ukMN08HDEK

— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) August 29, 2018

Barman won the high jump (1003 points) and javelin throw (872 points) events while finishing as runner-up in the shot put (707 points) and long jump (865 points) events. But she disappointed in the 100m (981 points, 5th position) and 200m finishing seventh to accumulate 790 points.

It meant that the 21-year-old needed to produce the best performance in the final event, which was the 800m race. She eventually finished fourth to claim the gold.

Wang Qingling of China scored 5954 points to win the silver, while Japan’s Yuki Yamasaki settled for the bronze medal with 5873 points.

Another Indian in the fray, Purnima Hembram finished fourth in the event with 5837 points.

This was the first time an Indian won a Heptathlon gold, having won a silver and two bronze medals in the previous editions.

Soma Biswas and JJ Shobha had won the silver and bronze respectively at the Busan Asian Games (2002) and the Doha Games (2006), while Pramila had won a bronze at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010.