Latest news with #RupalChaudhary
Mint
2 days ago
- Sport
- Mint
How Indian sprinter Rupal Chaudhary overcame injury to emerge a winner
In August 2022, Rupal Chaudhary won two medals at the World Athletics U-20 Championships. She took silver as part of the 4x400 mixed relay team where they smashed the Asian record. Then, in the women's 400 metres, she clocked a personal best of 51.85 seconds, the sixth fastest time among juniors that year. As the first Indian to win two medals at the U-20 World Championships, the teenager from Shahpur Jainpur near Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, had announced her arrival in style. Also read: How Indian distance runner Gulveer Singh trains for speed and endurance Three months later, however, the quarter miler went missing from the competitive circuit. An injury during training left her with a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament as well as the meniscus. She spent most of 2023 in rehab, longing to get back to the track and continue where she had left off. Even as she was finding her form again, an illness resulted in missing out on the Paris Olympics. Those months taught Chaudhary a lot about patience. This May, at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea – her first major competition since the injury, Chaudhary wanted to simply run as fast as she could. She first took silver in the women's 400 metre, and followed it up with two gold medals in the mixed and women's 4x400m relay. 'I'm happy with my performance, but not satisfied. You'll see a different joy on my face when I'll be satisfied. But yes, I'm relieved to see that it's all coming together for me again," Chaudhary, 20, says. Midway through 2023, Chaudhary remembers a testing period that left her disturbed. She had just about resumed training, but a heavy load in preparation for the Asian Games trials left her injured again. She disconnected from the world and kept to herself back home, uncertain of what the future had in store. It was only after her parents talked her out of it that she connected with coach James Hillier, who asked her to travel to Mumbai to get treated. An extended period of rehabilitation under Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala followed. She resumed training and six months later at her first race, clocked 52.79 seconds. 'That race made me realise that I could do really well because I had been away from the track for about a year-and-a-half and still managed that timing. Then, in the months ahead when I wasn't running very well, my timing went up to 53-54 seconds. But that's as bad as it got. During that time, I saw some highs as well as lows both of which were enough motivation to keep putting in the work," she says. Also read: Pain, persistence and teamwork: What I learnt from my first Hyrox race Since December 2024, Chaudhary has been working with coach Jason Dawson at the national camp in Thiruvananthapuram. Her first race this year was the Indian Open 400m Competition in March, where she took gold (52.41s) ahead of more experienced runners like Vithya Ramraj and Sneha K. 'I was taking on full workout loads before that event and I just had a day's break before the race. The coach asked me to approach it like a training session," she says. A month later, she beat Vithya and Sneha again to take gold (52.55s) at the National Federation Senior Athletics Championships. She had trained for just two weeks while recovering from a minor back injury. 'The consistency of the timing was really satisfying. It gave me belief in my abilities and I realised that if my training is not hampered, I can get the results. And yes, winning against opponents who are older and more experienced is a lot of motivation to keep improving," she says. The journey of discovering has been a constant since Chaudhury found the joy of running at school in 2017. At the physical education teacher's insistence, Chaudhary and her father, Omveer Singh, started travelling 23km – each way – to get to the Kailash Prakash Stadium in Meerut. Her father would spend hours watching her train, bring her back home, and then attend to the fields. 'Those days, my father didn't have timely meals nor enough rest. Our only income is farming and he couldn't focus on it either because of my training. So he refused to take me to the stadium after a few days," she recalls. Chaudhary was hurt and didn't eat for three days in protest. It was only after her mother, Mamta Devi, played peacemaker that her father agreed to let her train again. 'He gave me a year to win a medal at the Nationals and I was aware that it was the only way I could continue running," she says. A year after she took to regimented training, Chaudhary won gold in the 600 metre event at the Junior U-14 Nationals. There's been no stopping her ever since. Shail Desai is a Mumbai-based freelance writer. Also read: Running Through Hell: Meet the runners who conquered India's toughest desert ultramarathon
The Hindu
29-05-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Asian Athletics Championships 2025: Indian women win 4x400m relay gold, men clinch silver
Indian women's 4x400m relay team clinched the gold medal while the men took silver at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, Korea, on Thursday. The quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha and Subha Venkatesan helped India win its first gold in the event since 2013 as it clocked 3:34.18s. Vietnam (3:34.77s) grabbed silver while Sri Lanka (3:36.67s) clinched the bronze. In the men's event, the quartet of Jay Kumar, Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil Saji and Vishal TK finished behind Qatar to take the silver medal in a thrilling race. India clocked 3:03.67s while Qatar's timing was 3:03.52s. China (3:03.73s) grabbed the bronze medal. In women's long jump, Ancy Sojan and Shaili Singh won the silver and bronze medals, respectively while Reihaneh Mobini Arani grabbed a historic first-ever gold medal in the event for Iran. READ | Jyothi Yarraji defends 100m hurdles gold, sets new competition record Asian Games silver medallist Ancy's best jump of 6.33m came in the third round while for Shaili, who had won the silver medal at the previous Asian Championships in Bangkok in 2023, her opening jump of 6.30m remained her top effort. Arani took the gold with a second-round jump of 6.40m. In heptathlon, Nandini Agasara (3,610 points) was the leader at the end of four events with China's Liu Jingyi (3,412 points) and Chinese Taipei's Cai Juan Chen (3,410 points) trailing her. The remaining three events - long jump, javelin throw and 800m - will take place on Friday. In men's high jump, Sarvesh Kushare finished fifth as he failed to clear the bar set at 2.23m while in men's shot put, Samardeep Singh Gill finished sixth with a best throw of 19.25m. India has won 14 medals - five gold, six silver and three bronze - at the ongoing edition which concludes on Saturday.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
28-05-2025
- Sport
- First Post
Asian Athletics Championships 2025: India defends 4x400m mixed relay gold on Day 2; Tejaswin, Chithravel win silver
The Indian quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, Santhosh Kumar, Vishal TK and Subha Venkatesan won the mixed 4x400m relay with a timing of 3:18.12sec, with Rupal also winning silver in the women's 400m race. read more India's Rupal Chaudhary not only was part of the quartet that won 4x400m mixed relay gold, she also won an individual 400m silver on Day 2 of the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea. Image credit: Instagram/@rupal_400 India's 4x400m mixed relay team defended its gold with a domineering performance after four individual silvers and a bronze in varying events bolstered the country's overall tally to eight medals on a brilliant second day at the 26th Asian Athletics Championship in Gumi, South Korea. The Indian quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, Santhosh Kumar, Vishal TK and Subha Venkatesan won the top honours with a timing of 3:18.12sec. Of these, Rupal also claimed the individual women's 400m silver earlier in the day. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Subha was also a part of the mixed team that claimed gold in the 2023 edition. China, who finished a distant second with a time of 3:20.52s, and Sri Lanka, who clocked 3:21.95s to take third place, were both disqualified. The reasons for their disqualification have not been disclosed yet. Due to the disqualifications, Kazakhstan (3:22.70s) and Korea (3:22.87s) clinched the silver and bronze medals respectively. The largely US-based Tejaswin Shankar was among the silver-winners for India, finishing second in decathlon after accumulating a score of 7618 following the regulation 10 events. He ended behind China's Fei Xiang (7634) and ahead of Japan's Keisuke Okuda (7602). Praveen Chithravel also bagged a silver medal in men's triple jump with a best effort of 16.90m. Chithravel said the conditions were normal for him on Wednesday as he is accustomed to much more adverse situations while competing abroad. 'Today, the conditions were very good. In the first two jumps, I just wanted to get into the top 8. Then, on the third jump, I hit 16.90m – and right after that, it started raining. After the third jump, my body started feeling heavy every time I jumped. So today, it was the same,' he said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The first jump was 16.60m, the second was 16.67m, and then the third was 16.90m. After that, I felt very comfortable. But about 10 minutes later, it started raining. 'Actually, this is normal for me. Whenever I compete abroad, it's usually cold and rainy, so I felt the same today. After the rain, it takes more than 40 minutes for me to recover. So then, my body starts to go down, and I have to really push myself. And then… everything is done.' Earlier, Rupal (400m) and Pooja (1500m) picked up silver medals, Yoonus Shah fetched a bronze in men's 1500m. The mixed gold was India's second top finish after national record-holder Gulveer Singh's (10,000m) brilliance on Tuesday. Quarter-miler Rupal opened India's account for the day, clocking 52.68 seconds to finish second in the women's 400m final. Fellow Indian Vithya Ramraj was placed fifth with a time of 53.00 seconds. The gold went to Japan's Nanako Matsumoto (52.17s), while Uzbekistan's Jonbibi Hukmova (52.79s) took bronze. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pooja followed with another silver, clocking 4:10.83sec in the women's 1500m, just ahead of compatriot Lili Das, who finished fourth (4:13.81sec). Li Chunhui of China (4:10.58) won the gold while and Japan's Tomaka Kimura ran a season's best time of 4:11.56 to claim the bronze medal. Rupal had scripted history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the World U20 Athletics Championships in 2022, claiming a silver in the 4x400m relay followed by a bronze in the women's 400m events back then. Hailing from a farming family in Shahpur Jainpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district, the 20-year-old is being seen as a bright prospect. A delighted Rupal said she hopes to better her personal best timing but before that she wants to fix her injury issues. 'My training was going well till national. After that, I was a little worried due to my injury. But the way my training is going and my performance is going, I'm okay. I'm feeling okay. But I'm not satisfied,' she said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'So, my main target from now on is to fix the problems that I have in my back, in my hamstring. And according to the training that I did before the national, I have already done my personal best during my training. 'So, I think I can improve my personal best. So, I'll do that after I leave from here,' Rupal added. In the men's 1500m, Yoonus clinched bronze with a time of 3:43.03, pushing India's medal count to five. Japanese runner Kazuto Lizawa ran a personal best of 3:42.56 to take home the coveted gold medal while South Koreas Jaeung Lee (3:42.79) finished second. Aside from national record-holder Gulveer's gold, Servin Sebastian clinched the 20km race walk bronze on the opening day of the competition. In other results, Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi ran a personal best of 45.57s in the men's 400m but that could only fetch him a fourth-place finish. Long jumpers Shaili Singh and Ancy Sojan qualified for the final of the women's long jump event. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Shaili had a best effort 6.17m, the third best in the 20-woman field. Ancy 6.14m sealed her place in the final. Hurdler Jyoti Yarraji qualified for the next round after finishing with a time of 13.18s in her heat. She crossed the line in third position.
India Today
28-05-2025
- Sport
- India Today
Asian Athletics 2025: Mixed relay team wins Gold, Tejaswin bags decathlon silver
India clinched six medals on Day 2 of the Asian Athletics Championships held in Gumi, South Korea. The highlight of the day was the Indian 4x400m mixed relay team, which secured the gold medal, while Tejaswin Shankar won silver in the decathlon event on Wednesday, May 28. With this performance, India currently holds third place on the medal table at the prestigious continental championships, trailing only China and Japan with a total of two gold, four silver and two bronze 4x400m mixed relay team delivered a stellar performance, clinching the gold medal and defending their title with a time of 3:18.20 seconds. Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan, Rupal Chaudhary, Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi and Subha Venkatesan sprinted to the top step of the podium, leading from start to Indian quartet outpaced China (3:20.52s) and Sri Lanka (3:21.95s), who took silver and bronze respectively. This victory marked India's second gold medal of the championships following Gulveer Singh's triumph in the men's 10,000m on Day SHANKAR AND PRAVEEN CHITRAVEL WIN SILVERS Meanwhile, India's Praveen Chithravel won silver behind China's Zhu Yaming in the men's triple jump. Praveen, who won bronze in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, came up with a best effort of 16.90m while Zhu took Gold with Gyumin Yu won bronze with a best effort of 16.82m, which was his season-best Shankar won silver in decathlon, impressing over the first two days. The 26-year-old has won bronze in the 2023 edition, but it's his second silver in decathlon at the continental level after his Asian Games silver in DELIGHT FOR RUPAL CHAUDHARYEarlier in the day, Rupal Chaudhary, a 20-year-old quarter-miler from Uttar Pradesh's Shahpur Jainpur village in Meerut, opened India's medal account with a silver in the women's 400m. She clocked 52.68 seconds, finishing behind Japan's Nanako Matsumoto (52.17s), while Uzbekistan's Jonbibi Hukmova took bronze (52.79s).Fellow Indian Vithya Ramraj placed fifth with 53.00 was Rupal's second medal of the day, reinforcing her rising star status. Notably, she had previously made history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the World U20 Athletics Championships in 2022, with a silver in the 4x400m relay and bronze in the Thennarasu Kayalvizhi clocked a personal best of 45.57 seconds in the men's 400m, finishing fourth in a tightly contested final. Though he missed out on a medal, his performance contributed significantly to India's successful 4x400m relay run later in the BAGS SILVER IN WOMEN'S 1500MIndia's Pooja added another silver in the women's 1500m, recording a time of 4:10.83. She narrowly missed the gold, which went to China's Li Chunhui (4:10.58), while Japan's Tomaka Kimura bagged bronze (4:11.56, season's best).advertisementCompatriot Lili Das finished fourth with a commendable 4: FOR YOONUS IN MEN'S 1500MYoonus Shah brought home a bronze medal in the men's 1500m, clocking 3:43.03. The race was won by Japan's Kazuto Lizawa (3:42.56, personal best), followed by South Korea's Jaeung Lee (3:42.79).On Day 1, apart from Gulveer Singh, Servin Sebastian clinched the 20km race walk bronze. (WITH PTI Inputs)
Hans India
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Hans India
Asian Athletics C'ships: India wins gold in 4x400m mixed relay, Tejaswin bags decathlon silver
Gumi (South Korea): The Indian quartet of Santhosh Kumar Tamilasaran, Rupal, Vishal Thennarasu Kayalayizhu, and Subha Venkatesan bagged gold medals in the 4x400m mixed relay on the second day of competitions at the Asian Athletics Championships here on Wednesday. The Indian team clocked 3:18.12s to finish first in the race and bagged India's second gold in the Continental competition. China took silver with 3:20.52s while Sri Lanka bagged bronze with 3:21.95s on Wednesday. India have won eight medals, including two gold at the end of the second day of competitions. India's Day 2 at the Asian Athletics Championships started with silver in women's 400m through Rupal Chaudhary. She clocked 52.68 seconds to clinch a spot on the podium. Japan's Nanaku Matsumoto (52.17s) won the gold and Uzbekistan's Jonbibi Hukmova (52.79s) pocketed the bronze. Another Indian in the lineup, Vithya Ramraj, finished fifth with a time of 53s. A bronze medal in men's 1500m by Yoonus Shah was the second medal of the day for India. Yoonus finished third with a timing of 3:43.03s, behind Kazuto Iizawa of Japan, who won the gold with 3:42.56s, and Jaeung Lee of Korea, who won the silver with 3:42.79s. Later, Pooja added the third medal to the day's tally when she pocketed the silver in the women's 1500m run with a timing of 4:10.83s. China's Li Chunhui (4:10.58s) took the gold medal. Another Indian representation in the event, Lili Das, finished fourth, clocking 4:13.81s. In the men's triple jump, Praveen Chithravel added another medal to India's kitty with a best effort of 16.90m to claim the silver, finishing behind China's Zhu Yaming (17.06m). Korea's Gyumin Yu took the bronze medal with 16.82m. Defending champion Abdulla Aboobacker, however, finished fourth with 16.72m. Afterwards, Tejaswin Shankar became the first Indian to win two medals in the decathlon at the Asian Athletics Championships. Tejaswin, who holds the national record in the event, finished with 7,618 points to claim silver on Wednesday, adding to his bronze from the 2023 Championships. On day 1, Servin Sebastian won the first medal for India at the Asian Athletics Championships by bagging a bronze in the men's 20km race walk event on Tuesday. Gulveer Singh then won the first gold medal for India in the men's 10000m while Rupal Chaudhary was the first Indian woman to finish on the podium at Gumi with a silver in the 400m. Over 60 Indian athletes are competing at the Asian Athletics Championships 2025, aiming to build on a strong showing from the previous edition held in Bangkok two years back. The 26th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships features over 2000 athletes from 43 nations. Indian athletes are participating in a total of 30 medal events - 15 for men, 14 for women and one mixed team - over the five-day competition.
