National record holder Mohammed Afsal has reached the men’s 800m final at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. He clocked 1:47.37 on Sunday to finish third in his heat and qualify as one of the two fastest non-automatic qualifiers.

Iran’s Ali Amirian topped the heat in 1:47.26, with Qatar’s Hatim Aitoulghazi second in 1:47.36, just 0.01 seconds ahead of Afsal. India’s Krishan Kumar failed to progress after clocking 1:50.38.

Afsal holds the national record of 1:44.93, set in Poznan, Poland, in 2025. He is the first Indian to run the 800m under 1:45, and he won silver in the event at the 2022 Asian Games.

The 29-year-old from Kerala serves in the Indian Air Force and trains with the Reliance Foundation programme in Bengaluru. He will now chase a medal in the final, with India’s athletics team already among the medals in Japan.

A final win would add another big medal to India’s athletics campaign at these Games, which has been one of the country’s strongest sports so far.