Kerala’s Nayana James recorded a personal best mark, leaping 6.67m to secure the women’s long jump gold at the 3rd Indian Open Jumps Competition held at the Anju Bobby George Foundation here on Wednesday.
On a day when no athlete threatened the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification mark, the 28-year-old’s effort stood out, coming nearly seven years after her previous best of 6.55m.
Nayana’s best jump came off her second attempt, leaving the fancied Shaili Singh with a mountain to climb. The 20-year-old struggled with her rhythm and could only manage 6.40m.
Nayana’s distance was 16cms off Anju Bobby George’s National record and 19cms behind the Paris mark. But National jumps coach Denis Kapustin, who had a trackside view of the proceedings, termed it the “best jumps result” in recent times.
Another athlete to reach a personal best mark was Tamil Nadu’s 22-year-old Pavithra Venkatesh in the women’s pole vault as she scaled 4.15m. It was a sweet result for the 2023 Asian indoor silver medallist, who couldn’t travel to Tehran last month for the 2024 edition as she couldn’t carry her poles via cargo.
“I was happy to get my personal best,” Pavithra said. “I went for the National record (4.21m) but couldn’t reach it. But overall I am happy, especially after what happened recently [Tehran fiasco].”
Statemate M. Gowtham scaled 5.10m in the men’s competition — 30cm better than his hitherto best — to emerge first.
In men’s triple jump, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Abdulla Aboobacker took gold (16.76m) ahead of CWG gold medallist Eldhose Paul (16.45) and Tamil Nadu’s Selva Prabhu (16.32).
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