Manikanta Hobildar of Services, on Wednesday, set a new Indian national record for men’s 100m sprint on Wednesday, during the ongoing National Open Athletics Championships at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru.
The 21-year-old ran a near perfect race as he cruised to victory by a big margin clocking an astonishing 10.23s in the semi-finals. He eclipsed the previous national record held by Odisha’s Amiya Mallick (10.26s), who incidentally ran alongside him in the semi-final heat 3 and finished fourth.
Assam’s Amlan Borgohain had clocked 10.25s in an Inter-Railways athletics meet at Rae Bareli in September last year, but it was not ratified as a national record by the Athletics Federation of India.
Hobildar had earlier clocked 10.50s in the heats and will now be in action in the final on Thursday.
“I felt that I could break the record in this event,” Hobildar was quoted as saying by Sportstar. “However, thought I would get the timing in the final, not the semi-final.”
The Udupi-born athlete had first shot to fame with a 10.31s sprint at the Services athletics meet earlier in the year. He had joined the Indian army as a sepoy back in 2020.
Four finals held on wednesday
A total of four finals were held on the first day of the 2023 Open Nationals in Bengaluru. While Anmol Kaur won the women’s hammer throw competition with a best effort of 60.19m, Dev Meena emerged on top in men’s pole vault at a height of 5.05m.
Besides, Dinesh (29:10.11s) and Seema (33:26.90s) emerged as the winners in men’s and women’s 10,000m respectively.
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