Asian Games 2018: Tejender Pal Singh Toor wins historic gold

India’s Tejinder Pal Singh Toor wins Gold medal in Men’s Shot Put final at the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia; Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulates Tejinder Pal for setting a new Asian Games record.

Tajinder Pal Singh Toor brought India its seventh gold medal by winning the men’s shot put event with an Asian Games record throw of 20.75 meters in Jakarta on Saturday.

Tajinder is the first Indian to win the men’s shot put gold at the Asian Games since Bahadur Singh Sagoo, who had thrown a best of 19.03m to win the gold in Busan in 2002. It’s the eighth men’s shot put gold for India in Asian Games history.

It was an action-packed performance by Toor as he moved into the top spot with his first attempt in a throw of 19.96m. However, his third attempt was a foul throw but that did not deter the 24-year-old from registering a record throw of 20.75m to clinch the yellow metal and take India’s tally to 7 gold medals at the event.

Born in 1994, Tajinderpal Singh Toor hails from a family of farmers in Moga, Punjab. Since childhood, he wanted to be a cricketer but on his father’s encouragement, he took up shot put. Toor shot to fame with medals in the Federation Cup, Interstate Competitions, and Open Nationals. In the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, he won a silver medal and subsequently going become Asia’s number one shot putter.

Last year, Toor also won silver at the Asian Indoor Championships in Turkmenistan. His outing in the 2018 Commonwealth Games was disappointing as he could only finish at the eighth spot. But he came back strongly to bag the gold at the 57th National inter-State athletics championships in 2018. Expectations were always high from Tajinderpal Singh Toor and it does seem that in Jakarta he has finally come of age.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Tajinderpal Singh Toor for winning the gold medal in Men’s Shot Put Final at the 18th Asian Games inĀ  Jakarta. PM tweeted- “A historic Gold and a new record! Congratulations to Tejender Pal Singh Toor for winning the prestigious Gold medal in the Shot put event at @asiangames2018. Proud of him for setting a new Asian Games record as well.

Besides, Union Sports Minsiter Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore also congratulated Tajinderpal Singh Toor for winning a gold medal in shot put. He tweeted “A RECORD BREAKING GOLDEN THROW! Champion Tejinderpal Singh Toor has won a GOLD medal in Shot Put at #AsianGames2018. What a performance! What a champ! #KheloIndia #IndiaAtAsianGames2018”

Meanwhile, India bagged 3 bronze medals on day 7 of the Asian Games in Jakarta. Dipika Pallikal settled for a bronze medal after losing her semifinal match to Malaysia’s Nicole David. Joshna Chinappa lost to her 19-year-old opponent Sivasangari Subramaniam of Malaysia. In the men’s draw, top seed Saurav Ghosal lost to Chung Ming of Hong Kong and settled for Bronze.

With three singles players in the semi-finals of the men’s and women’s draws, India were assured as many medals in the sport. However, Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa all lost their semi-final matches and had to settle for bronze. First to take the court on Saturday was Dipika Pallikal, who was up against gold medal favourite Nicol David of Malaysia. Though she did put up a tough fight, her six-time Asian Games gold medal-winning opponent proved just too good as she closed out the match 3-0.

Joshna Chinappa failed to match up to her 19-year-old Malaysian opponent Sivasangari Subramaniam, losing 1-3. In the men’s draw, top seed Saurav Ghosal lost to Chung Ming Au of Hong Kong China 12-10, 13-11, 6-11, 6-11, 6-11 in the singles semi-final. The 2014 Asian Games silver medallist raced to a 2-0 lead in the match but his opponent then pulled off three identical 11-6 results in the following three games to close out the win.

Gurjit Kaur struck twice as the Indian women’s hockey team beat title holders South Korea 4-1 to register its third consecutive win and also book a place in the semi-finals of the Asian Games. India scored three goals in as many minutes in the fourth quarter to emerge winners in the Pool B encounter after both the sides were locked at 1-1 till the 53rd minute. India are leading Pool B with nine points from three wins infront of South Korea and Thailand.