Asian champion 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji leads India's 6-gold show in Taiwan Open
Taipei City (PTI) Asian champion Jyothi Yarraji won the women's 100m hurdles race with yet another impressive time as India won six gold medals in the Taiwan Open international athletics competition here on Saturday.
National record holder Yarraji clocked 12.99 seconds to pocket the gold at the Taipei Municipal Stadium, ahead of Japanese runners Asuka Terada (13.04 seconds) and Chisato Kiyoyama (13.10 seconds), who took the silver and bronze respectively.
The 25-year-old Yarraji had won gold in the Asian Championships in South Korea on May 29 with a time of 12.96 seconds. Her national record stands at 12.78 seconds.
Another national record holder, Tejas Shirse also won gold in the men's 110m hurdles, clocking 13.52 seconds, the second fastest time of his career.
Local athletes Hsieh Yuan-kai (13.72 seconds) and Kuei-Ru Chen (13.75 seconds) won the silver and bronze respectively.
The 23-year-old Shirse's national record stands 13.41 seconds.
India's best 4x100m relay quartet of Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Amlan Borgohain won gold, clocking 38.75 seconds, just six-hundredth of a second outside of the national record of 38.69 seconds set by the same team at the National Relay Carnival in Chandigarh earlier this year.
But, it fell short of the timing which would have taken the team to Tokyo World Championships.
Fourteen countries have already qualified for the World Championships in September through the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China in May and only two slots are available. Nigeria and Netherlands are currently in the reckoning for the two slots with 38.20 seconds.
The Indian team of Sudheeksha Vadluri, Sneha Sathyanarayana Shanuvalli, Abinaya Rajarajan and Nithya Gandhe won gold in the women's 4x100m relay, clocking 44.06 seconds.
The national record in this event stands at 43.37 seconds clocked by the quartet of Archana S, Dhanalakshmi, Hima Das and Dutee Chand in 2021.
Abdulla Aboobacker and Pooja also won gold in the men's triple jump and women's 1500m respectively.
Aboobacker jumped 16.21m, well below his personal best of 17.19m.
Pooja, who had won a silver in the Asian Championships in South Korea last month, clocked 4 minutes, 11.63 seconds to win the gold. She has a personal best of 4:09.52 which she had clocked in 2023.
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US trade deficit slipped to USD 901 billion last year amid Trump tariffs
Washington (AP): The US trade deficit slipped modestly in 2025, a year in which President Donald Trump upended global commerce by slapping double digit tariffs on imports from most countries.
The gap the between the goods and services the US sells other countries and what it buys from them narrowed to just over USD 901 billion from USD 904 billion in 2024, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Exports rose 6 per cent last year, and imports rose nearly 5 per cent.
The trade gap surged from January-March as US companies tried to import foreign goods ahead of Trump's taxes, then narrowed most of the rest of the year.
Trump's tariffs are a tax paid by US importers and often passed along to their customers as higher prices.
But they haven't had as much impact on inflation as economists originally expected. Trump argues that the tariffs will protect US industries, bringing manufacturing back to America and raise money for the US Treasury.
