Murali Sreeshankar twists ankle, refuses wheelchair and returns to win Asian Games silver

Nagoya: The image of Indian long jump ace Murali Sreeshankar twisting his ankle on his fourth jump on a rain-swept Monday night at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium will be a tough one to forget.As the 27-year-old landed awkwardly on his right leg and writhed in pain, memories of the ruptured left patellar tendon that ruled him out of the Paris Olympics and kept him out of the sandpit for almost two years came flooding back. He limped out with the help of medical staff and was offered a wheelchair, which he refused. Even when the medical team advised him not to return, he shrugged them off.Asian Games Full Coverage | Schedule | Medal TallyHe did not need to take his next two attempts. He had already breached the eight-metre mark with his second jump of 8.07m, enough to fetch him silver and a repeat of his podium finish from the previous edition. China’s Yuhao Shi, with a season’s best of 8.17m, took gold. The other Indian in the field, Solomon Patturaj (7.70m), finished seventh.Once his medal was confirmed, Sreeshankar, who won silver at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, limped over to collect the Indian flag, wrapped himself in the tricolour and celebrated briefly before heading off for treatment.It was a productive day for India in athletics, with the team picking up three silver and three bronze medals.Podium in javelinThe javelin competition was without Neeraj Chopra, but India did not miss out on a podium finish. In fact, there were two.Yashvir Singh saved his best for last, clinching silver with a season’s best of 85.72m. Fancied Sri Lankan Rumesh Pathirage, in red-hot form, continued his rich vein of form to take gold with 88.55m, while Rohit Yadav completed the podium with 84.35m.Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem from Pakistan, who is going through a lean patch, managed an underwhelming 80.29m, which was incidentally his season’s best.Pathirage, who has breached the 90m mark three times this year, took some time to find his rhythm in the testing conditions, allowing Yashvir to take the lead. But with his fourth attempt of 88.33m, the 23-year-old Sri Lankan moved ahead and only got better from there.Double silver for GulveerGulveer Singh, who won silver in the 10,000m three days ago, returned to claim another silver in the 1500m with a personal best of 3:36.72.Gulveer never fell behind in the race and briefly took the lead at the 200m bend, but Japan’s Kazuto Iizawa produced a late burst in the home stretch to take gold in a Games record 3:36.35.Gulveer later admitted he had not paced the race well enough.“I wanted to do better, but I’m glad I could win a medal. I was pacing according to the long-distance running, but he (Iizawa) took off and I couldn’t keep pace,” said the 28-year-old.Parul makes it two in two daysParul Chaudhary, who took silver in the 3000m steeplechase on Saturday, delivered another strong performance to settle for bronze in the 5000m.Parul looked set for silver but could not produce the final push and clocked 15:14.61.The day’s biggest disappointment came in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, where defending champion Avinash Sable finished fourth in 8:21.67. Sable, returning from injury and having said he was peaking for the Games, looked off the pace for much of the race.There was also heartbreak for the women’s 4x100m relay team, which finished fourth despite clocking a season’s best. The quartet of Abinaya Rajarajan, Sneha Sathyanarayana, Sudeshna Shivankar and Tamanna timed 43.57 seconds.Stay updated with the latest Asian Games 2026 news, check the Asian Games medal tally and complete Asian Games schedule.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.