World University Games 2025: Ankita Dhyani Wins 3000m Steeplechase Silver, Men’s 4x100m Relay Team Bags Bronze

Steeplechaser Ankita Dhyani came up with a blistering run to clinch silver in the gruelling 3000m event with a personal-best time of 9:31.99 seconds, while the men's 4x100m relay quartet bagged a bronze as Indian athletes ended their campaign in the World University Games here on Sunday.

The trio of Munita Prajapati, Mansi Negi, and Sejal Singh finished third to take the bronze in women's 20km team racewalk on the concluding day.

India ended their campaign with two gold, five silver and five bronze in the showpiece event.

On a day when several Indian athletes were in contention in track events, but could bag only two medals, 23-year-old Ankita, a second-year social sciences student, shaved nearly seven seconds from her personal best time of 9:39.00 seconds to finish a few milliseconds behind Finland's Ilona Maaria Mononen, who timed 9:31.86.

Adia Budde of Germany took the bronze, clocking 9:33.34 seconds.

On Friday, Ankita had topped Heat 1 by clocking 9:54.79 seconds and secured her place in the final. It was a massive 22-second improvement, which propelled Ankita to second place in the competitive race.

Ankita remained in the top-five through most of the race and came up with a breathtaking sprint in the final 300 metres to almost catch up with the German before missing the gold by just 0.13 seconds.

The men's 4x100m relay team, comprising Lalu Prasad Bhoi, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Mrutyam Jayaram, clocked 38.89 seconds to take the bronze. South Korea took the gold in 38.50 seconds, while South Africa (38.80) bagged the silver.

The Indian women's 4x400m relay team came up with a season's best time of 3:35.08 seconds, but it was not good enough for a medal, as the quartet of Anakha Bijukumar, Devyaniba Zala, Rashdeep Kaur and Rupal finished fifth, clocking 3:35.08 seconds.

The German team, despite a poor reaction time, won the gold with a time of 3:29.68 seconds.

The Indian men's 4x400m relay quartet of Vishal Kayalvizhi, Aswin Lakshmanan, Jerome Jayaseelan Panimaya and Balakrishna finished fifth, clocking 3:06.5.seconds.

Poland won the gold with a time of 3:03.64.

Indian race walkers had a dismal showing, with none of them finishing in the top-10 in the men's and women's sections, though a few came up with personal or season best timings. However, the trio of Munita, Mansi, and Sejal finished third to take the bronze in women's 20km team racewalk.

Sejal came up with a personal best of 1:35:21 seconds to finish 15th, with the gold going to Australia's Elizabeth McMillen in a WUG record time of 1:28:18 seconds.

Munita (1:39:33) was 18th, Mansi (1:41:12) was 20th, Shalini (1:48:07) 23rd, and Mahima (1:55.49) 25th.

In men's 20km racewalk, Rahul clocked a season's best 1:26:34 seconds but finished 20th in the men's 20km race walk final with the gold going to Andrea Cosi of Italy with a World University Games record of 1:19:48 seconds.

Gaurav Kumar (1:28:44) was 25th, Sachin Singh Bohra (1:32:03) 28th and Sanjay Kumar (1:46:21) finished last among 31 competitors.

Pole vaulter Dev Kumar Meena (5.35m) settled for a fifth-place finish in the final with the gold going to Simen Guttormsen (5.75m) of Norway.

India's Medal Winners:

Gold - Parneet Kaur/Kushal Dalal (mixed team compound archery), Sahil Jadhav (men's compound archery).

Silver - Parneet Kaur (women's compound archery), Kushal Dalal/Sahil Jadhav/Hritik Sharma (men's team compound archery), Praveen Chithravel (men's triple jump), Seema (women's 5000m), Ankita Dhyani (women's 3000m steeplechase).

Bronze - Badminton mixed team, Vaishnavi Adkar (women's singles tennis), Parneet Kaur/Avneet Kaur/Madhura Dhamangaonkar (women's compound team archery), Sejal Singh, Munita Prajapati, Mansi Negi (women's 20km racewalk team), men's 4x100m relay.