Annu Rani had been in awful form the whole season, but she decided to rectify that on Tuesday.
The 31-year-old produced a season-best effort of 62.92m in her fourth attempt to become the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games javelin gold.
This was her second Asian Games medal as she had won a bronze in the 2014 edition.
For India, Barbara Webster (bronze in 1951), Elizabeth Davenport (bronze in 1962) and Gurmeet Kaur (bronze in 1998) have earlier won Asian Games medals in the competition.
“I was trying the whole year but I was not able to give my best. I was feeling depressed and under pressure because the government spent a lot of money sending me abroad for training,” Annu said.
“This was my last competition of the season and I did not give up. So I was determined to give my best.”
She revealed that she was on the verge of quitting after a series of poor shows.
“I was even doing throws of 54m and I thought if I was doing so bad, I would quit. But I told myself that I would not give up so soon and fight till the end.”
With inputs from PTI
