Team India finished the Asian U18 Athletics Championships 2025 with a total of 11 medals — one gold, five silver and five bronze — as the tournament concluded in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on Friday.
Himanshu Jakhar clinched India’s first javelin gold medal with a massive throw of 67.57m at the Asian U18 Athletics Championship.
The gold medal is also India’s first-ever in boys’ javelin throw at the continental meet.
The Indian youngster’s 67.57m opening throw was enough to land the gold ahead of the People’s Republic of China’s Lu Hao (63.45m) and Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Sadullaev (61.96m).
Himanshu has a personal best of 74.56m (700 gm), which he achieved at the National Junior Athletics Championships in December 2024, and has trained alongside legends Neeraj Chopra and Jan Zelezny in South Africa earlier this year.
On the second day of the competition on April 16, Nitin Gupta had registered the first podium finish for India at the sixth edition of the youth continental athletics championships by winning the silver medal in the boys’ 5000m race walk event.
The 17-year-old Army Boys Sports Company cadet clocked 20:21.51 seconds to finish behind China’s Zhu Ninghao, who was just 0.01 seconds faster.
Nitin held a minor lead heading into the final 100m of the gruelling race but lost ground in the final charge.
Initially, it seemed that an early celebration might have cost the teenager a gold, but Nitin came out to debunk the notion.
Among the girls, Tannu was the first Indian athlete to win a medal in Dammam with a silver in the 400m.
She clocked 57.63 to finish behind Japan’s Imamine Saki (57.27).
India’s Edwina Jason came fifth in the race with a time of 58.46s. Nischay was another standout star from the Indian contingent at the Dammam meet, winning two medals.
The 16-year-old bagged the silver medal in boys’ shot put with a personal best effort of 19.59m after claiming bronze in discus throw with a 58.85m haul.
Aarti also won bronze medals in both the girls’ 100m and 200m sprint events. She clocked new personal bests (11.93s in 100m and 24.31s in 200m) in both events.
In boys’ high jump, Devak Bhushan clinched silver with a 2.03m leap, just 0.2 short of gold medallist Mohammad Alduaij of Kuwait. Chiranth P, Sayed Sabeer, Saket Minj and Kadir Khan, meanwhile, combined to land the silver in the boys’ medley relay race with a new youth national record-setting time of 1:52.15. The previous mark was 1:52.96.
Aarti, Prisha Mishra, Edwina Jason and Tannu logged a did not finish (DNF) in the girls’ relay race.
Among the near-misses, Anchal Sajesh Patil narrowly finished outside the podium spots in girls’ high jump.
Despite managing the same clearance (1.65m) as bronze medallist Yasmeen Roy of Kuwait, the Indian athlete missed out as she cleared the height with her second attempt as opposed to Roy’s first.
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India had finished with a rich haul of 24 medals at the last Asian U18 Athletics Championships held in Tashkent in 2023. The count included six golds, 11 silvers and seven bronze with Rezoana Mallick Heena headlining the campaign by winning three medals two golds (Indian girls team relay and girls 400m) and one silver (girls 200m).
