Nagoya: Indian veteran athlete Manpreet Kaur secured a bronze medal in the women’s shot put final after hurling the iron ball to a distance of 17.17m at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium here on Friday.
Manpreet achieved the mark on her fourth throw to take the third-place finish behind the Chinese duo of Song Jiayuan (Gold) and Zhang Linru (Silver). The other Indian in the field, Krishna Jayasankar Menon, also put up an impressive performance as the youngster hurled the ball to a best distance of 16.57 to finish fifth.
Manpreet is a former Asian Athletics Championships bronze medallist, having finished third with a throw of 17.00 at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships.
She was recently part of the Commonwealth Games 2026, where she agonisingly missed out on a medal as she secured a fourth-place finish with a throw of 17.49m. She has also represented India in the 2016 Olympic Games, where she finished 23rd.
Manpreet won the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships gold medal; however, she tested positive for banned substances and was handed a four-year ban, and her gold was taken away too.
She made a comeback in 2022 and broke the national record by hurling the iron ball to 18.06m. She took part in the Commonwealth Games 2022 and finished 11th. At the previous Asian Games, she was fifth.
In 2026, Manpreet has put up strong domestic form by winning the National Inter-State Athletics Championships with 17.75m, surpassing the Asian Games qualification standard of 16.25m. Her performances against strong international competition demonstrate her consistency and ability to perform at major championships.
She also came close to winning a medal at the CWG 2026. However, Manpreet has now finished third with a bronze.
Manpreet is India’s only third woman to win an Asian Games shot put medal. Before her, Barbara Webster (1951) and Kiran Baliyan (2022) won bronze medals for India.
(IANS)
