Odisha sprinter Animesh Kujur ran a blazing 200m race as he received the gold medal with a nationwide document time of 20.40 seconds and have become the Asian season chief on the ultimate day of the Nationwide Federation Senior Athletics Competitors in Kochi on Thursday.
Odisha’s sprinter Animesh Kujur celebrates (ANI)
The 21-year-old Kujur, who had earlier received a silver in males’s 100m, ran an excellent race to raised Amlan Borgohain’s earlier nationwide document of 20.52 seconds set in 2022. Borgohain, representing Reliance, completed second with 20.80 seconds.
Together with his 20.40 seconds effort, Kujur turned the present Asian chief and joint thirty fifth finest on this planet within the season thus far.
The boys’s 200m remaining race additionally turned out to be the quickest ever within the nation with 4 rivals operating sub 21 seconds. Rahul Kumar G of Tamil Nadu clocked 20.85 seconds to complete third whereas Manikanta Hoblidhar of Karnataka took the fourth spot with a time of 20.91 seconds.
Kujur, nonetheless, missed the World Championships qualifying time of 20.16 seconds which is a really robust ask for an Indian 200m runner.
He, nonetheless, bettered the Asian Championships qualifying time of 20.53 seconds set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
Kujur has been in prime kind coming into the occasion. He received a gold within the Uttarakhand Nationwide Video games in February with a time of 20.58 seconds — his earlier private finest. He then completed on prime within the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Chennai earlier this month, clocking 20.63 seconds.
He had received 200m gold within the final version of this occasion, in addition to within the 2024 Nationwide Inter-State Championships.
“I felt good during the morning heat race. It gave a big boost to my confidence and eventually resulted in a record breaking performance in the medal round,” Kujur mentioned after the ultimate race.
He had clocked 20.69 seconds in Warmth Quantity 2 within the morning.
Praveen Chithravel qualifies for World Championships
In males’s triple soar, Praveen Chithravel equalled his personal nationwide document of 17.37m and certified for the World Championships in Tokyo later this yr.
The 23-year-old Chithravel, representing JSW, cleared the nationwide record-equalling distance in his third try and take the gold on the ultimate day of competitions. He had first set the nationwide document in Havana, Cuba, in Might 2023.
His effort breached the World Championships qualifying distance of 17.22m. The World Championships will probably be held in Tokyo from September.
“My plan was to record a jump of 17.20m plus today,” an elated Chithravel mentioned.
Abdulla Aboobacker of Air Pressure completed second with a soar of 16.99m, whereas Mohammed Muhassin, additionally of JSW, was third with an effort of 16.28m.
Chithravel, hailing from Tamil Nadu, struggled most a part of final yr, going past 17m solely as soon as. He completed twelfth in his qualifying spherical group within the Paris Olympics with a poor effort of 16.25m.
This yr, Chithravel started brightly, profitable gold within the Uttarakhand Nationwide Video games in February via a mediocre soar of 16.50m. He then produced a 17.13m effort on the Indian Open Jumps Competitors in Bengaluru in March, earlier than Thursday’s nationwide record-equalling efficiency.
The leaping pit additionally noticed Uttar Pradesh’s worldwide lengthy jumper Shaili Singh clearing 6.64m to win the gold and erase the long-standing meet document of 6.59m which had remained within the identify of her mentor Anju Bobby George since 2002.
Reliance athletes Ancy Sojan (6.46m) and Moumita Mondal (6.45m) completed second and third respectively.
The boys’s shot put occasion noticed an upset win with Samardeep Singh Gill of Madhya Pradesh beating nationwide document holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor of Punjab for the gold with a throw of 19.34m. Toor, who holds the nationwide document of 21.77m, produced a poor 18.77m. Aniket (17.89m) of Uttarakhand was third.
Nationwide document holder decathlete Tejaswin Shankar of Delhi picked up the gold with an combination of 7603 factors from the ten occasions. Yamandeep S (7226 factors) of Reliance and Jashbir Nayak (7156 factors) of Odisha received the silver and bronze respectively.
Within the morning session, Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav ran a well-judged race to win the gold medal within the ladies’s 5,000m. Her profitable time of 15:43.42 was higher than the Asian Championships qualification time of 16:03.33 set by the AFI.
The boys’s 5,000m race was extra aggressive. The highest three runners crossed the end line inside the Asian Championships qualification time of 13:48.33.
The battle for gold was between Abhishek Pal and Sawan Barwal. However it was Pal who surged forward of Barwal to win gold with a time of 13:40.59.
In ladies’s javelin throw, nationwide document holder Annu Rani, representing Uttar Pradesh, continued her battle although she received gold with a disappointing effort of 56.66m — far beneath the Asian Championships qualifying distance of 58m. Karnataka throwers Karishma S Sanil (52.73m) and Ramyashree Jain (51.17m) took residence the silver and bronze respectively.