Shot-putter Tajinder Singh Toor qualified for the Tokyo Olympics with a new national record at the Indian Grand Prix 4 in Patiala on a day when the national women’s 4x100m relay team and sprinter Dutee Chand also breached the previous best marks in the country.
The athlete from Punjab also shattered the 12-year-old Asian record of 21.13m which was in the name of Sultan Abdulm Al Hebshi of Saudi Arabia since 2009, reported PTI.
Sprinter Dutee Chand, discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur and the India 4x400m relay team also set new National Records in the Indian Grand Prix 4 athletics meet at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports.
Chand’s superb sprint, however, was 0.02 seconds off the automatic qualification mark in women’s 100m. The Odisha athlete should still qualify for Tokyo based on rankings.
Toor crossed the Olympic Qualification mark with a throw of 21.49m and broke his own National Record. The Olympic Qualifying effort in this event is 21.10m. The previous record, which was also in Toor’s name, stood at 20.92m and was set in 2019. Toor had two attempts that were better than his previous best, Athletics Federation of India tweeted.
The mark, when ratified, will also be the new Asian record, according to the Sports Authority of India. The Asian Games gold medallist said he was not satisfied with this yet and wanted to cross the 22.0m mark, in an interview with AFI, adding that Ryan Crouser’s world record-shattering effort on Friday was a motivating factor too.
Tajinder Toor started with a 21.49m to cross the Olympic qualification mark but also came up with a throw better than his previous NR of 20.92m in every single attempt that was registered (4 out of 6). He went past the qualification mark twice as well.
Toor became the 11th individual Indian track and field athlete to qualify for Tokyo2020 by going past the qualifying mark of 21.10m with each of his four legal puts. He sealed the berth with his opening try and had other puts of 21.28, 21.13 and 21.13 besides no marks with his second and sixth attempts.
The women’s relay team, however, failed to place itself inside the Olympic qualifying bracket despite the record effort.
The quartet of Hima Das, Dutee Chand, S Dhanalakshmi and Archana Suseendran clocked 43.37 seconds to win the race ahead of India ‘B’ team (48.02 seconds) and Maldives (50.74) in the three-team race. The Indian team bettered the previous record of 43.42 seconds set in 2016 in Almaty by the quartet of Merlin K Joseph, H M Jyothi, Srabani Nanda and Chand.
But the quartet failed to clock below 43.05 seconds needed to be among the top 16 teams in the Road to Tokyo list. Sixteen teams will run in the women’s 4x100m relay race in Tokyo Games. India was placed 22nd before Monday’s race on the basis of its 43.81 seconds performance during the 2019 Asian Championships. Monday’s 43.37 seconds will take India to the 20th spot.
Olympic-bound Kamalpreet Kaur bettered her earlier national record mark in women’s discus throw by hurling the iron disc to a distance of 66.59m. But, according to PTI, the performance will not be counted as the new national record as she was the lone competitor in the event.
“As per rules, for national record purposes, the number of competitors should at least be three. So, her performance will not be counted as a national record. But it will be considered for other purposes like ranking,” AFI Secretary Ravinder Chaudhry told PTI.
Kaur had become the country’s first woman discus thrower to breach the 65m mark with a national record mark of 65.06m during the Federation Cup here in March, which also booked her a spot in the Tokyo Olympics. Her performance on Monday will put her just outside the top 5 in the season’s best throws around the world. The bronze medal winners in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics came up with 66.38m and 65.34m efforts respectively.
Kaur said her only focus is now is to go beyond the 69.00m mark.
Dutee Chand also shattered a national record in the women’s 100m event. She completed the race in 11.17 seconds. However, the Olympic Qualification time in this event is 11.15s. The previous record was 11.21 seconds, also created by Dutee.
(With PTI inputs)
The results:
Men
400m (compiled from Races A and B): 1. Sarthak Bhambri (Delhi) 47.45 seconds; 2. Amit Balyan (Haryana) 47.52; 3. Alex Anthony (Kerala) 47.55.
1500m: 1. Ajay Kumar Saroj (Uttar Pradesh) 3:43.46; 2. Ishu Solanki (Haryana) 3:53.55; 3. Sukhanpreet Singh (Punjab) 3:56.31.
400m Hurdles: 1. MP Jabir (Kerala) 50.51 seconds.
3000m Steeplechase: 1. Shankar Lal Swami (Haryana) 8:34.40; 2, Mohammed Nur Hasan (Uttar Pradesh) 9:19.18; 3. Parveen Dhanda (Haryana) 9:24.86.
4x400m Relay: 1. India A (Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Arokia Rajiv and Noah Nirmal Tom) 3:02.61; 2. India B 3:11.77; 3. Maldives 3:37.38.
Long Jump: 1. M Sreeshankar (Kerala) 7.74m; 2. Yugant Shekhar Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 7.67; 3. Muhammed Anees Yahiya (Kerala) 7.60.
Triple Jump: 1. Eldhose Paul (Kerala) 16.62m; 2. Karthik Unnikrishnan ((Kerala) 16.21; 3. Abdulla Aboobacker (Kerala) 15.90.
Shot put: 1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 21.49m (New National Record. Old: 20.92, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Ranchi, October 12, 2019); 2. Karanveer Singh (Punjab) 20.00; 3. Vanam Sharma (Rajasthan) 19.93.
Javelin Throw: 1. Rohit Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 75.83m; 2. Arshdeep Singh (Punjab) 75.58; 3. Rajender Singh (Haryana) 74.28.
Women:
100m: 1. Dutee Chand (Odisha) 11.17 seconds (New National Record; Old: 11.22, Dutee Chand, Ranchi, October 11, 2019); 2. AT Daneshwari (Karnataka) 11.48; 3. Himashree Roy (West Bengal) 11.71.
200m: 1. Hima Das (Assam) 22.88 seconds; 2. S Dhanalakshmi (Tamil Nadu) 23.14; 3. Archana Suseendran (Tamil Nadu) 23.26.
400m (compiled from Races A and B): 1. M R Poovamma (Karnataka) 53.78 seconds; 2. VV Revathi (Tamil Nadu) 54.28; 3. Kiran Pahal (Haryana) 54.48.
1500m: 1. Harmilan Bains (Punjab) 4:08.27; 2. PU Chitra (Kerala) 4:25.31.
5000m: 1. Parul Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 16:01.37; 2. Pooja Harijan (Rajasthan) 16:51.84.
4x100m relay: 1. India A (Archana Suseendran, Hima Das, S Dhanalakshmi and Dutee Chand) 43.37 seconds (New National Record. Old: 43.42, India, Almaty, July 4, 2016); 2. India B 48.02; 3. Maldives 50.74.
Discus Throw: 1. Kamalpreet Kaur (Punjab) 66.69m (New National Record. Old: 65.06m, Kamalpreet Kaur, Patiala, March 19, 2021).
Javelin Throw: 1. Annu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 60.58m; 2. Sanjana Choudhary (Rajasthan) 53.54; 3. Shlipa Rani (Haryana) 48.74.
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