Gold winner Arshad Nadeem, a javelin thrower from the Paris Olympics, defeated Sachin Yadav of India and many other competitors on Friday to advance to the Asian Athletics Championships finals, which will conclude on Saturday, May 31, in Gumi, South Korea.

Nadeem, who was competing for the first time in nine months, won the heats with an incredible 86.34-meter throw.

Two days before the Pahalgam incident, which strained ties between the two nations, Nadeem was in the headlines for turning down an invitation to visit India for the Neeraj Chopra classic.

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Additionally, Yash Vir Singh and Sachin secured seats in the final, which is set for Saturday. The former, who finished seventh with a best throw of 79.62 meters, earned gold in the National Games in Dehradun earlier this year.

Yuta Sakiyama of Japan qualified with a season-best throw of 81.36 meters, followed by Ryohei Arai of his country with 77.85 meters. Taepoong Nam of Korea qualified as well with a personal best throw of 76.26 meters.

The Asian Athletics Championships performance of India

India won gold at the competition on Thursday thanks to outstanding performances by the country’s best female hurdler, Jyothi Yarraji; experienced steeplechase runner Avinash Sable; and the 4x400m women’s relay team, which took first place in Gumi.

On the third competition day of the tournament, India’s dominance was further cemented when the quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha, and Subha Venkatesan won the gold medal in the women’s 4x400m relay event. This came after Jyothi and Sable set the tone with their season-best time of 3:34.18 seconds.

Sri Lanka settled for bronze with 3:36.67 seconds, while Vietnam won silver with 3:34.77 seconds. This was India’s first gold in 12 years and their tenth overall in the competition. After a massive rainstorm interrupted the competition, India won three gold, two silver, and one bronze medal on Thursday, bringing their total to 14.

In the meanwhile, Nandini Agasara won the women’s heptathlon long jump competition on Friday. With a time of 20.98 seconds, Animesh Kujur advanced to the men’s 200-meter sprint finals.

The foursome of Pranav Gurav, Ragul Kumar, Manikanta Hoblidhar, and Amlan Borgohain are competing in the men’s 4*100-meter relay heats.