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India's medal rush from the track and field events continued as 25-year old triple jumper Arpinder Singh clinched the gold medal with a jump of 16.77m, becoming only the second Indian male sportsperson to bag a gold medal in the triple jump category, 48 years after Mohinder Singh Gill won the medal in 1970.
The gold medal, India's tenth in this edition of the Asian Games and the fourth from the field of athletics came after a terrific leap of 16.7 in Arpinder's third attempt after he started off with a foul on his first attempt.
Recovering from the foul, Arpinder leaped 16.58m in his second try while in his third try, raised the bar with a leap of 16.77m. Although the athlete's last two jumps resulted in a foul, his 16.77 attempt proved enough as he finished on top of the pack, followed by Uzbekistan's Ruslan Kurbanov (16.62m) and China's Shuo Cao (16.56m) who finished second and third respectively.
The other Indian jumper in the finals, Rakesh Babu Arayan finished 6th with a jump of 16.40m on a day that belonged to Arpinder Singh for a historic medal. Here are ten things to know about Arpinder Singh.
#1 Comes from the land of Punjab
Arpinder Singh was born on the 30th of December, 1992 at Amritsar, Punjab and found liking to the track and field events since he was 14 years old when he was practising at the Sports Authority of India.
#2 Multiple failures, the stepping stone to success
When Arpinder Singh started out on his athletics career, the 22-year old first tried his hand at 100m and then switched to 200m. Soon enough, his focus was channelled on the 400m circuit before his switch to triple jump at the school level saw him win the silver medal at the U-17 School Games that set his heart on the triple jump.
#3 Bronze medalist at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships
At the Asian Athletics Championships that were held on the 7th of July 2013 at Pune, Arpinder made a mark as he leapt 16.58m to clinch his first ever senior medal.
#4 Broke the national record in 2014
2014 was the breakthrough year for Arpinder as the then 22-year old jumped 17.17m at the National inter-state championships in Lucknow, breaking the previously held record by Renjith Maheshwary which also is his best jump till date.
#5 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist
At the back of his tremendous show at the National championships, Arpinder earned a ticket to take part in the 2014 Commonwealth Games where he jumped 16.63m to clinch the bronze medal and was the only other Indian men's athlete apart from discus thrower Vikas Gowda to win a medal from athletics for India.
#6 Stint at the London Coaching Foundation
Post the Commonwealth Games, Arpinder landed a stint with the London Coaching Foundation in 2015 under 1986 Commonwealth Games triple jump champion John Herbert but post that, failed the qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
#7 Gold medalist at the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
2017 panned out as a year to remember for Arpinder as the talented jumper finished at the top in the Patiala Indian GP, New Delhi Indian GP, and the Patiala Federation Cup before he claimed the top honours at the Ashgabat Asian Indoor Games that was held in Turkmenistan.
#8 Coached by SS Pannu
Since Arpinder started to make inroads with his skill, the triple jumper has achieved a majority of his laurels under coach SS Pannu, who has trained the 25-year old athlete since his time at Sports Authority of India at Ludhiana in 2009.
#9 A fan of Akshay Kumar
The 25-year old, who loves to spend his free time watching movies and going for photoshoots claimed that his favourite actor was Akshay Kumar.
#10 Supported by the Anglian Medal Hunt Company
An athlete needs the right amount of backing to excel and the support he has received from the Anglian Medal Hunt Company, a venture by the Anglian Holdings that aims to promote athletes in India.
