India win four medals in athletics, hold on to fifth spot at Asian Youth Games
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Riffa (PTI): India's athletics contingent ensured a steady flow of medals, grabbing four podium finishes including two silver through Edwina Jason and Oshin, to maintain the country's fifth position at the ongoing Asian Youth Games, here on Friday.
With two silver and two bronze from the track and field events, India's overall tally rose to two gold, five silver and eight bronze medals (2-5-8) at the continental event.
In the girls' 400m final, Edwina Jason clocked 55.43 seconds to clinch the silver medal, finishing 1.17 seconds behind Aisha Tariq of the UAE, who took gold. Wu Chia-Ying of Chinese Taipei claimed the bronze in 56.60 seconds.
In the girls' discus throw, Oshin added another silver for India with a best effort of 43.38m. Xinyi Wang of China dominated the event with a throw of 55.38m to win gold, while Shih Yuh-Jhen of Chinese Taipei settled for bronze with 43.00m.
Palash Mandal secured a bronze medal in the 5000m walk to open India's account in athletics on the day. He clocked 24:48.92s.
The event was dominated by China, with Haoze Zhang (21:43.82s) and Yujie Lu (22:28.64s) taking the gold and silver medals respectively.
Zubin Gohain added another bronze medal for India in the boys' high jump, clearing 2.03m on his second attempt after a smooth progression through 1.85m, 1.89m, 1.93m, 1.97m, 1.99m and 2.01m.
The 15-year-old Assam jumper showed fine consistency before faltering at 2.05m, which he failed to clear in all three attempts.
Kai-Lun Huang of Chinese Taipei went on to win the gold after scaling 2.05m, while Bi Zaoxin of China took the silver, having cleared 2.03m on his very first attempt.
Gohain, who needed two tries to get over the same height, had to settle for bronze on countback.
Himanshu Kumar Singh, who also cleared 2.03m, missed out on a medal as he needed three attempts to achieve the height.
In the boys' javelin throw, India's Prince narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth with a throw of 61.92m.
Jayathissa Chathura Dulnjana of Sri Lanka took the bronze with 62.51m, while Wu Huaichu of China (68.38m) and Qiu Bang-Xuan of Chinese Taipei (64.91m) won the gold and silver respectively.
China continued to dominate the medals table with 31 medals -- 13 gold, 13 silver and five bronze (13-13-5), followed by Thailand (7-2-3), Uzbekistan (6-3-4) and Iran (3-5-7).
Kazakhstan are a fair distance behind India with 11 medals, including two gold and two silver.
Athletes from 45 national federations are competing for 1,677 medals -- including 505 gold, 503 silver and 669 bronze -- across 21 sports at the ongoing Games, which conclude on October 27.
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Congress cites Maniben Patel's diary entries, asks Rajnath to apologise for Babri claim
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Saturday shared diary entries of Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter from a book to rebut Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's claim that India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, and demanded that Singh apologise for spreading "falsehoods".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, claimed the defence minister was spreading falsehoods to “improve his relationship” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Here is Maniben's original diary entry in Gujarati on pages 212-213 in the book ‘Samarpit Padchhayo Sardarno’ by CA R S Patel 'Aaresh', published by Sardar Patel Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, 2025,” Ramesh said on X, sharing screenshots of the relevant pages from the book.
“There is a huge difference between what is contained in the original diary entry and what Rajnath Singh ji and his fellow ‘distorians’ are propagating,” Ramesh said.
“The Defence Minister must apologise for the falsehoods he is spreading, simply to improve his relationship with the PM,” he claimed.
The Congress had earlier termed Singh's claim that Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds a “lie” and “WhatsApp university story”, and said the defence minister should not walk in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's path.
Addressing a gathering at Sadhli village in Gujarat's Vadodara district last Tuesday, Singh said Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel didn't allow his plans to succeed.
The BJP had cited a book by Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter to double down on Singh's claims, and said the first prime minister also said he felt "repelled" by some of the temples in south India despite their beauty.
“The source of what Rajnath Singh said is the 'Inside Story of Sardar Patel, Diary of Maniben Patel'," BJP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had said at a press conference at the party headquarters while responding to media queries on the issue.
Trivedi claimed that on Page 24 of the book, it is written that Nehru also raised the question of the Babri mosque, but Sardar Patel made it clear that the government could not spend any money on building a mosque.
