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Indian athlete Pooja clinched the bronze medal in the womens high jump event at the Asian Games 2026 after producing a strong performance in the final on Tuesday.
Pooja cleared 1.84m to finish third on the podium in a closely contested competition. She successfully cleared each of her attempts up to 1.84m, with all her jumps coming on the first attempt. Her clean card helped her secure the bronze medal on countback, ahead of athletes from China and Kazakhstan who also recorded the same height. Uzbekistans Barnokhon Sayfullaeva won the gold medal after clearing 1.90m, while Kazakhstans Kristina Ovchinnikova claimed silver after clearing 1.87m. Pooja finished third with her best effort of 1.84m. Indias Supriya Basavaraju also competed in the womens high jump final and finished 12th with a best clearance of 1.75m. The bronze medal added another achievement to Indias athletics campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, following the womens 4x400m relay teams gold medal-winning performance and the mens 4x400m relay teams bronze medal win earlier on the day. The Indian quartet of Kiran, Machettira Poovamma, Prachi and Vithya Ramraj clocked 3:29.69 to finish on top of the podium, with Bahrain securing the silver medal after finishing the race in 3:30.21. China won bronze with 3:31.02. Vithya Ramraj, who had earlier won bronze in the womens 400m hurdles, added another medal to her Aichi-Nagoya campaign with a gold-winning performance in the relay event. Meanwhile, in the mens event, the Indian quartet of Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu Thekkinalil, Jay Kumar and Vishal Thennarasu clocked 3:01.61 to finish third in a closely contested race, where less than a second separated the top three teams. The Indian womens 4x400m relay teams gold medal marked Indias second gold of the day. Earlier, Neeru Dhanda scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual medal in the womens trap event at the Asian Games, clinching gold in the final. Neeru scored 28/30 to claim the top spot, defeating Chinas Sun Yunong, who secured silver with 26/30, while UAEs Hajar Abdulmalik won bronze with 21/25. Her triumph also handed India its second gold medal in shooting at the 2026 Asian Games. (ANI)
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