Vikas Shive Gowda (Vikas Gowda) discuss thrower clinched the first gold for India on July 04th the eve of his birthday, amidst much celebration as the crowd listened to the National Anthem being played for the first time in the championship.

He threw the iron disc to a creditable 64.90m in his 4th attempt to win his first gold of the Asian Championship in his 5th appearance. Vikas Gowda had earlier won a silver each in the 2005 and 2011 editions. He holds the national record of 66.28m whilst his season’s best is 65.82m .

Amongst much celebration the home team won 3 medals on the second day at the 20th Asian Athletics Championship held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune, State of Maharashtra, India . As the championship concluded on Sunday, India had acquired a total haul of 17 medals. The tally of 9 for the men and 8 for the womens’ events, making it the first time in the last 5 Asian Championships that Indian men had won more medals than women. The total of 17 medals was India’s best since the 1989 edition in New Delhi.

The 29-year old athlete born on July 05th 1983, in Mysore,Karnataka is an ace discuss thrower and shot putter who trains in the US. He grew up in Frederick, Maryland in the US. His father Shive Gowda coached the 1988 Indian Olympic track team.

Vikas Gowda is an alumnus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the US MCAA National Champion 2006 in Discuss.

Vikas Gowda : Records : (2005) came 2nd in the 2005 Asian championships held in Incheon, Korea / (2010) came 3rd in the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China / (2010) came 2nd in the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India / (2011) came 2nd in the 2011 Asian Championship held in Kobe, Japan / (2013) 1st position, won Gold at the 20th Asian Championship held in Pune, India .