India’s 2018 Jakarta Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor hogged the limelight on the final day of the 62nd National Inter State Senior Athletics Championship in Bhubaneswar on Monday in the men’s shot put final.
Toor was declared best male athlete and was successful in qualifying for the Budapest World Athletics Championship. Jyothi Yarraji was crowned female athlete of the meet.
The Punjab international shot putter recorded 21.77m throw in his third attempt to improve his Asian Games mark of 20.75m he set on his way to winning gold at 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
“My training had gone as per planned and I was prepared to go past the 21m barrier,” an elated Toor said after etching his name in record books on Monday. “My next plan is to break the 22m barrier.”
Tajinderpal Singh Toor began his record- breaking campaign with an opening throw of 21.09m. His second attempt was no mark, while he hurled the iron ball to 21.77m in his third throw. The Asian Games qualification mark in men’s shot put was 19m, while the Budapest World Athletics Championship qualification mark was 21.40m.
Punjab’s Karanveer Singh won silver with a throw of 19.78m, while Delhi’s Sahib Singh won bronze with a distance of 18.75m.
Away from the throwing arena, Delhi’s promising middle distance runner KM Chanda outdueled more fancied runner Harmilan Bains to win women’s 800m race.
In an exciting sprint finish, the top three runners achieved the Hangzhou Asian Games qualification time of 2:04.57 seconds. However, it was Chanda who stole the limelight winning gold with a time of 2:03.82 seconds. Silver went to Harmilan (2:04.04 secs), while Madhya Pradesh’s KM Deeksha won bronze with a time of 2:04.35 secs.
Chanda in the post-race interaction said she did homework to win the race today. “My race strategy was to surge ahead at the bell and push hard until the finish line,” Chanda said. “I’m happy to have executed my plans in the race today.”
Chanda had also won bronze in the women’s 1500m.
There was an intense battle for gold in the women’s 400m hurdles. In the rush for the first position both R Vithya Ramraj of Tamil Nadu and Sinchal Kaveramma TR from Karnataka, winner of gold and silver, respectively, dipped below the Asian Games qualification time of 57.48 secs.
Vithya was extremely happy with her gold winning time of 56.01 seconds. “My next target is to break the 56 seconds barrier,” she added.
India’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games bronze medalist in women’s javelin throw, Annu Rani, also booked a berth for the 2023 Asian Games. Her gold medal-winning throw of 58.22m was better than the Asian Games qualification mark of 56.46m.
It was Annu’s second domestic competition of this season and she was hopeful of improving her performance in the next event. “I should be able to cross the 60m mark at next month’s Asian Athletics Championship in Bangkok,” the international thrower said.
The contest for gold medal in women’s long jump was between Kerala’s Ancy Sojan and Uttar Pradesh’s promising athlete Shaili Singh. Both pushed each other, but it was Ancy, who claimed gold with a jump of 6.51m, while Shaili’s best jump of the day was 6.49m. Both Ancy and Shaili booked berths for the Asian Games.
KM Rachna and Tanya Chaudhary, winner of gold and silver medal in women’s hammer throw, respectively, were also successful in winning Asian Games tickets.
Haryana’s teenage jumper Pooja scaled 1.80m to win gold in the women’s high jump and equal the Asian Games mark of 1.80m.
Assam’s Amlan Borgohain sprinted home to win gold in the men’s 200m. His performance of 20.71 seconds was better than the 23-year-old meet record of 20.80 secs, but he fell short of Asian Games qualification time of 20.61 secs.
Rohit Yadav of Uttar Pradesh won men’s javelin throw gold, while Sreeshankar Murali won men’s long jump gold.
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