Competing with a pole vault borrowed from the organisers, Sunil Kumar won the decathlon gold medal with his personal best tally of 7003 points in the Asian U-20 Athletics Championship here on Tuesday.
Sunil, 18, won 100m hurdles. As discus throw and javelin throw to make up for the below par show in the other events.
And secure the gold medal in the gruelling discipline competed over two days.
The 19-year-old suffered a setback much before stepping out on the track and field when a South Korean airlines and Air India barred him from carrying his personal pole due to “technical issues” relating to the length of the equipment.
But that did not stop Sunil from bagging the gold as he won the 10-event competition with a personal best tally of 7003 points on the penultimate day of the competition.
His previous best of 6855 points achieved during the Federation Cup Junior National Championships in April.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had requested the organisers to provide Sunil with a pole as he finished fourth in the event.
Decathlon comprises 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m hurdles. It discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m.
After placed fifth with 3597 points on day one on Monday.
Thus, Sunil used every bit of his energy to win gold on his international debut.
Uzbekistan’s Nodir Norbaev (6956 points) and Makhmudov Samandar (6840) won the silver and bronze respectively.
In women’s high jump, Pooja won a silver after clearing 1.82m. Barnokhon Saifullaeva of Uzbekistan (1.84m) won the gold.
Also, Bushra Khan added another silver in the women’s 3000m race, clocking 9:41.47s.