Bhumeshwory Devi HuidromBhumeshwory Devi Huidrom etched her name in Manipur's athletics history on Friday by becoming one of the few athletes from the state to win an international medal, claiming bronze in the women's 800m at the Asian U23 Athletics Championships in Ordos, China.Huidrom did incredibly well to deny Gejing Zhu the bronze, crossing the finish line in 2:10.20, just 0.03 seconds ahead of the Chinese runner. Uzbekistan's Jonbibi Hukmova won gold in 2:08.41, while Japan's Kurumi Sugure took silver in 2:09.42.The 22-year-old, who hails from Huidrom Awang Leikai in Manipur's Imphal West district, has been in good form this year, having also won silver in the women's 800m at the Federation Cup in Ranchi in May.On Friday, however, she could not come close to her personal best of 2:04.44, which she had clocked at last year's National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Chennai.This was only her second international competition, having earlier been selected in India's 21-member squad for 16th Asian Cross-Country Championships in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2023. Competing in the U-20 women's 6km race, the then 19-year-old finished fifth.Bhumeshwory, who currently trains at SAI NCOE Bengaluru under Italian coach Claudio Pannozzo, first grabbed attention when she won the girls' 1500m gold at the 2022 Khelo India Youth Games. She followed it up with a bronze in 1500m at the second Khelo India University Games.While she is scheduled to also compete in 1500m during the event in China, the Manipur athlete also runs in the 400m, where she has a personal best of 55.29s.Besides Bhumeshwory, Abhay Singh and Shakeel also won bronze medals in the men's 200m and men's 800m respectively. Abhay finished third in 20.96s, while China's Youwen Huang won gold in 20.43s and Japan's Kota Uematsu claimed silver in 20.58s.Shakeel clocked 1:48.78 to finish third. Vinod Kumar B, the other Indian in the men's 800m final, finished fourth in 1:49.10. India's Sharuk Khan finished fourth in the men's 3000m steeplechase in 9:14.14, while Abhijit Sanjay Bhosale also placed fourth in the decathlon with 6,610 points.