Tajinderpal Singh Toor bossed the final day’s proceedings in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships by improving his own Asian Record in the Shot Put at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Monday. With a 21.77m effort on his third try, the Punjab left-hander earned himself a berth in the squad for the World Athletics Championships, to be held two months from now in Budapest.
Tajinderpal, who returned a ‘Did Not Start’ result in the World Championships last year, has given himself the chance to make amends. Having worked to find his rhythm and confidence in the earlier meets this year, he breached the 21m mark with his opening try. And with his third attempt, he broke his earlier Asian mark of 21.49 set on June 21, 2021, in Patiala.
His display towered over the spate of new Meet Records on Monday. Amlan Borgohain (men’s 200m), Gulveer Singh (men’s 5000m), P Yashas (men’s 400m Hurdles), S Siva (Pole Vault), R Vithya Ramraj (women’s 400m Hurdles), KM Rachna (women’s Hammer Throw) and Tamil Nadu men and women’s 4x400m Relay teams walked into the record books.
With a time of 20.71 seconds and 13 minutes 43.23 seconds respectively, Borgohain (Assam) and Gulveer (Uttar Pradesh) took credit for breaking long-standing Meet Records. The 21-year-old Yashas found a personal best time of 49.37 seconds for a second successive win over Tamil Nadu’s T Santhosh Kumar to lay claims of being India’s best 400m Hurdler now.
Uttar Pradesh’s Rachna, competing for the first time in 2023, produced the second-best Hammer Throw by an Indian with a 65.03m effort to edge her team-mate Tanya Chuadhary to second place. Rachna threw 63.66m last year after serving a ban for doping. National Record holder Sarita R Singh and erstwhile Meet Record holder Manju Bala did not get to the podium.
In tactical races that did not see any new marks being established, the 2018 Asian Games 1500m champion Jinson Johnson (Kerala) and Delhi’s Chanda (women’s 800m) caught the eye with creditable victories over Ajay Kumar Saroj (Uttar Pradesh) and Harmilan Bains (Punjab) respectively.
Haryana teenager Pooja edged out Haryana’s Rubina Yadav in the women’s High Jump final. The 16-year-old Pooja, who won silver in the Asian U20 Championships with a 1.82m clearance less than a fortnight ago, claimed victory by crossing the bar at 1.80m, a height that Rubina Yadav was not able to achieve on Monday.
Kerala’s Ancy Sojan beat Shaili Singh in a thrilling women’s Long Jump final, summoning her best of 6.51m on the fifth jump to forge ahead of the rising star from Uttar Pradesh by a mere 2cm. Shaili, not the one to give up easily, gave her final jump all she had but could only match the 6.49m she had leapt in the second try. As many as five jumpers crossed the 6.40m mark.
M Sreeshankar, who had rewritten the Meet Record at 8.41m in qualifying on Sunday, backed that good show with an 8.29m effort to win gold easily from National Record holder Jeswin Aldrin, the Tamil Nadu jumper producing just one valid jump (7.98) on Monday. Muhammed Anees Yahiya (7.91) ceded the third place to Tamil Nadu’s P David (7.94).If there
was one athlete whose below-par showing led to disappointment among fans, it came from Karnataka’s DP Manu in the men’s Javelin Throw final. He finished fourth with a best effort of 76.85m while Uttar Pradesh’s Rohit Yadav, Odisha’s Kishore Kumar Jena and Shivpal Singh, also of Uttar Pradesh, each threw twice over the 80m mark.
For that matter, Annu Rani’s unrealised quest to breach the 60m mark this year was also a talking point. She won the women’s Javelin Throw gold with an opening effort of 58.22m. Shot Putter Kiran Baliyan, competing for the first time this year, was the surprise package in the women’s throws, sending the iron ball over 17.17m for a personal best and the season lead among Indians.
The results (final):
Men
200m: 1. Amlan Borgohain (Assam) 20.71 seconds (New Meet Record; Old: 20.80, Anil Kumar, Chennai, 2000); 2. Shashikanth Virupaksha (Karnataka) 21.08; 3. Akash Kumar (Uttar Pradesh).
1500m: 1. Jinson Johnson (Kerala) 3:42.77; 2. Ajay Kumar Saroj (Uttar Pradesh) 3:42.96; 3. Shashi Bhushan Singh (Bihar) 3:43.93.
5000m: 1. Gulveer Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 13:43.23 (New Meet Record. Old: 13:51.31, Surendra Singh, 2009); 2. Harman Jot Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 13:44.25; 3. Hemraj Gurjar (Rajasthan) 13:45.91.
400m Hurdles: 1. P Yashas (Karnataka) 49.37 (New Meet Record. Old: 49.37, Ayyasamy Dharun, Guwahati, 2018); 2. T Santhosh Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 49.52; 3. MP Jabir (Kerala) 50.40.
4x400m Relay: 1. Tamil Nadu (S Arokia Rajiv, T Santhosh Kumar, K Sathish, Arul Rajalingam) 3:06.75 (New Meet record. Old: 3:09.29, Kerala, Chennai, 2006); 2. Kerala 3:06.87; 3. Haryana 3:08.13.
Pole Vault: 1. S Siva (Tamil Nadu) 5.11m (New Meet Record. Old: 5.10, Kundan, Guwahati, 2018); 2. Dev Meena (Madhya Pradesh) 4.90; 3. AK Sidharth (Kerala) 4.80.
Long Jump: 1. M Sreeshankar (Kerala) 8.29m; 2. Jeswin Adlrin (Tamil Nadu) 7.98; 3. P David (Tamil Nadu) 7.94. (Note: M Sreeshankar set New Meet Record of 8.41m in qualifying. Old: 8.23, Sreeshankar, Chennai, 2022).
Shot Put: 1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 21.77 (New Asian, National & Meet Records. Old AR and NR: 21.49, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Patiala, June 21, 2021; Old MR: 21.10, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Patiala, June 28, 2021); 2. Karanveer Singh (Punjab) 19.78; 3. Sahib Singh (Delhi) 18.75.
Javelin Throw: 1. Rohit Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 83.28m; 2. Kishore Kumar Jena (Odisha) 82.87; 3. Shivpal Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 81.96.
Women
200m: 1. Srabani Nanda (Odisha) 23.77 seconds; 2. Prachi (Uttar Pradesh) 24.12; 3. PD Anjali (Kerala) 24.25.
800m: 1. Chanda (Delhi) 2:03.82; 2. Harmilan Bains (Punjab) 2:04.04; 3. KM Deeksha (Madhya Pradesh) 2:04.35.
5000m: 1. Sanjivani Baburao Jadhav (Maharashtra) 15;55.60; 2. Seema (Himachal Pradesh) 16:11.50; 3. Ankita Dhyani (Uttarakhand) 16;37.85.
400m Hurdles: 1. R Vithya Ramraj (Tamil Nadu) 56.01 seconds (New Meet Record. Old: 57.02, Jauna Murmu, Guwahati, 2018); 2. Sinchal Kaveramma TR (Karnataka) 56.76; 3. Anu Raghavan (Kerala) 58.13.
4x400m Relay: 1. Tamil Nadu (R Dhanusha, Subha Venkatesan, S Baby, R Vithyra Ramraj) 3;37.87; 2. Punjab 3:39.22; 3. Delhi 3:39.51.
High Jump: 1. Pooja (Haryana) 1.80m: 2. Rubina Yadav (Haryana) 1.78; 3. Abhinaya Shetty (Karnataka) 1.76.
Long Jump: 1. Ancy Sojan (Kerala) 6.51m; 2. Shaili Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 6.49; 3. Bhavani Yadav Bhagavati (Andhra Pradesh) 6.44.
Shot Put: 1. Kiran Baliyan (Uttar Pradesh) 17.17m; 2. Manpreet Kaur (Haryana) 16.61; 3. Abha Khatua (Maharashtra) 16.39.
Hammer Throw: 1. KM Rachna (Uttar Pradesh) 65.03m (New Meet Record. Old: 64.19, Manju Bala, Chennai, 2022); 2. Tanya Chauhdary (Uttar Pradesh) 63.16; 3. Renu (Haryana) 60.91.
Javelin Throw: 1. Annu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 58.22m; 2. Priyanka (Haryana) 51.94; 3. Rashmi K (Andhra Pradesh) 50.95.