Paris Olympics gold medallist javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem on Friday beat India’s Sachin Yadav and a few more athletes to qualify for the finals of the Asian Athletics Championships, which is being held in Gumi in South Korea and will draw to a close on Saturday, May 31. Competing for the first time in nine months, Nadeem topped the heats with a brilliant throw of 86.34m. Nadeem was recently in the news when he declined an offer to travel to India for the Neeraj Chopra classic, two days before the Pahalgam attack, which soured relations between the two countries. BREAKING: Arshad Nadeem qualifies for the final of Asian Athletics Championship with his first throw of 86.34m! ??✨@ArshadOlympian1 pic.twitter.com/41U1BTY88B — Muneeb Farrukh (@Muneeb313_) May 30, 2025 Sachin and Yash Vir Singh bagged spots in the final as well, scheduled for Saturday. The former, who won gold at the National Games in Dehradun earlier this year, recorded a best throw of 79.62m to finish fifth. Japan’s Yuta Sakiyama bagged his season’s best throw of 81.36m to qualify, and so did his compatriot Ryohei Arai with 77.85m. Korea’s Taepoong Nam bagged his personal best throw of 76.26m to qualify as well. India’s performance at the Asian Athletics Championships It rained gold for India at the tournament on Thursday as the nation’s fastest woman hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, seasoned steeplechase runner Avinash Sable, and the 4x400m women’s relay team delivered brilliant performances to finish on top in Gumi. After Jyothi and Sable set the tone, the quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha and Subha Venkatesan clinched the gold medal in the women’s 4x400m relay event after clocking their season-best time (3:34.18 sec) to extend India’s dominance on the third competition day of the tournament. Vietnam took silver with 3:34.77 sec, while Sri Lanka settled for the bronze with 3:36.67 sec. This was the 10th gold overall for India in the event and the first in 12 years. Overall, India snared three gold, two silver and a bronze medal on Thursday, taking their overall tally to 14 after proceedings were disrupted by a huge thunderstorm. Meanwhile, on Friday, Nandini Agasara topped the list in the long jump section of women’s heptathlon. Animesh Kujur qualified for the finals of the men’s 200m sprint, clocking 20.98 seconds. The heats of the men’s 4*100m relay are ongoing, featuring the quartet of Pranav Gurav, Ragul Kumar, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain.