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By Our Correspondent

Tianjin (China): Chen Chengyu shocked two-time defending champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor in men's shot put to headline China's continued dominance as the curtains came down at the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships at the Tuanbo Sports Centre Athletic Arena here on Sunday.

Led by Chen's upset win, China added four medals on the last day to emerge on top of the standings with 34 medals, including 10 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze. Qatar snatched the second place with just four medals - all of them gold. Japan who was in the second spot after the first two days slipped to third with a haul of 3 gold, six silver and two bronze for a total of 11 medals. Only China and Japan crossed double digits in medal haul as Kazakhstan (3-1-3) finished fourth with a total of seven medals.

In an engrossing battle that went to the wire, 31-year-old Toor took the lead after the first round with a heave of 19.49m but fouled his second attempt before improving it to 19.85 on his third try. Chen produced a throw of 19.72m on his third but another Chinese Xing Jialiang snatched the lead by landing the iron ball at 19.99m.

The Indian champion, who now faced a strong challenge from his two Chinese rivals, soon upped his game and took the lead back by crossing the 20-metre mark as with a throw of 20.05m, his season's best. He now had the chance to seal it but only managed to foul his fifth attempt. Xing's last throw landed at 19.30 meters but Chen produced the biggest heave of the evening touching 20.07 to take the pole position. Toor now had one last chance to defend his title but he fouled again to settle for the silver medal. Xing (19.99) took the bronze medal.

Looking ahead, Chen sounded confident. "I originally intended to focus on the Asian Games selection in June and whether I could participate in the Asian Games in September. This time, I mainly wanted to get some practice. I just finished my break recently, and my condition wasn't very good. But I still fought hard to win the championship. I just wanted to keep the title here, and I performed quite well in the end, which gave me a lot of confidence. I heard that there might be a chance to go to the World Championships in Poland later. So this win is quite significant," the men's shot champion told the AAA website.

"If I get the chance to go for the Asian Games, then it will be my first time. So this season, I hope to make more breakthroughs. The World Championships will also be held in Beijing next year, so I hope to have more opportunities to participate in these competitions," Chen added.

"After all, men's shot put has not appeared on the international stage for many years. It is up to us young people to take up this banner again," Chen said conscious of the big strides made by Chinese women in shot put.

Triple delight for Qatar

Qatar vaulted to the second place in the medals tally bagging three gold medals in the men's section on Sunday.

Chuot Ibrahim Abass M (800m), Elahlaami Zakaria (1500m) and the 4x400m relay finished on the top of the podium with commanding performances.

"It's a big win as it's my first victory at the Asian Games. It's a good start to the season with the Asian Games coming up later in the year," an elated Abass said.

Shankar bags India's only gold

The battle between India and China continued in men's heptathlon. But this time it was India who emerged on top as Tejaswin Shankar emerged on top after 1000m race, the last of the seven events which began with the 60m dash on Saturday, with a tally of 5993 points.

The Asian Games silver medallist emerged on top in three events, long jump (7.53m), high jump (2.23m), 60m hurdles (8.02s), and took the second spot in 1000m (2:43.91s). China's Hua Zihui (5749 points) took the second spot ahead of Japan's Maruyama Yuma (5637).

"This is the first time I'm winning a continental title, so I'm really happy about it," Shankar said. "It was a good opportunity to compete against my Asian peers at the start of the season and assess my strengths and weaknesses. Now we have around 7-8 months to prepare for the Asian Games where again I will be competing up against these athletes," Shankar added.

"I was really prepared but I never thought I would be so sad after winning the gold as I was only seven points away from scoring 6000 points and that would have been like a huge milestone. But in the end, I'm happy that I won the gold."

Results: Men: 800m: 1. Chuot Ibrahim Abass M (Qatar, 1:47.64 seconds), 2. Ochihai Ko (Japan, 1:48.24s), 3. Ma Zhongqiang (China, 1:50.04)

1500m: 1. Elahlaami Zakaria (Qatar, 3:43.75), 2. Keneshbekov Nursultan (Kyrgyzstan, 3:44.75), 3. Liu Dezhu (China, 3:45.06)

Shot put: 1. Chen Chengyu (China, 20.07m), 2. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (India, 20.05), 3. Xing Jialiang (China, 19.99)

Long jump: 1. Zhang Mingkun (China, 8.01m), 2. Lin Yu Tang (Chinese Taipei, 7.87), 3. Shu Heng (China, 7.82)

Heptathlon: 1. Tejaswin Shankar (India, 5993 points), 2. Hua Zihui (China, 5749 pts), 3. Maruyama Yuma (Japan, 5637)

4x400m relay: 1. Qatar (3:08.68s), 2. China (3:10.49), 3. Kazakhstan (3:12.23)

Women: 800m: 1. Wu Hongjiao (China, 2:08.56s), 2. Samijonova Sabokhat (Uzbekistan, 2:09.58), 3. Dastarbandan Toktam (Iran, 2:09.58)

60mH: 1. Zhang Bo Ya (Chinese Taipei, 8.12s), 2. Kiyoyama Chisato (Japan, 8.15), 3. Nakajima Hitomi (Japan, 8.15)

Long jump: 1. Xiong Shiqi (China, 6.42m), 2. Li Zhishuang (China, 6.39), 3. Ancy Sojan (India, 6.21)

High jump: 1. Gorbatova Valeriya (Uzbekistan, 1.87 PB), 2. Pooja (India, 1.87), 3. Dubovitsakya Nadezdha (Kazakhstan, 1.87)

4x400m relay: 1. Kazakhstan (3:38.02s), 2. China (3:38.29)