Nagoya: India's Sawan Barwal won a historic silver medal with a personal-best time in the men's marathon final at the Asian Games on Saturday, registering the country's first podium finish in the event in 44 years.
India last won a marathon medal at the 1982 Delhi edition of the Games.
Barwal clocked 2:11:37, finishing 48 seconds behind gold medallist Ichitaka Yamashita of Japan, who clocked 2:10:49.
China's Peiyou Feng (2:12:13) bagged the bronze medal.
In April this year, he broke Shivnath Singh's 48-year-old national record at the NN Marathon, Rotterdam. Barwal was leading the pack for a while.
At the halfway mark, Barwal had moved up to second place with a time of 1:05:54. Kartik Karkera, the other Indian runner in the event, finished 17th among 19 runners.
Barwal produced a strong performance throughout the race and remained among the leading runners after the 10km mark. He moved into the lead at the 21km mark and continued to stay with the front pack as the pace increased.
The Indian runner maintained his position among the top contenders between the 30km and 35km marks, with Japan’s Yamashita, China’s Han and Barwal emerging as the leading trio.
At the 36km mark, Yamashita created a gap of around 20-30 metres over the chasing group, while Barwal continued his impressive run to stay in second position. He held on to the silver medal spot until the finish line.
Barwal’s silver is India’s first Asian Games marathon medal in 44 years. His performance also added another historic achievement to India’s athletics campaign at Aichi-Nagoya.
So far, India has won 24 medals at the Asian Games, comprising two gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze medals, with 10 of those medals coming from shooting.
(With agency inputs from ANI & PTI)