Indian Grand Prix II: Yugendran sets IGP record, wins gold in men’s pole vault event

Yugendran broke the previous Grand Prix record of 5m, set by Gajanan Kumar Upadhayay of Railways in Bengaluru in 2010.

R. Yugendran won the Pole Vault at the Indian Grand Prix Athlete event at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Thursday. | Photo Credit: Ragu R / The Hindu

Tamil Nadu’s R. Yugendran set a new Grand Prix record of 5.20m, which he cleared in his second attempt, to clinch gold in the men’s pole vault event of the second Indian Grand Prix of the season at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Thursday.

Yugendran broke the previous Grand Prix record of 5m, set by Gajanan Kumar Upadhayay of Railways in Bengaluru in 2010.

Yugendran then failed in his attempt to break the National record of 5.31m, set by Siva Subramaniam of Services at the National Games in Gandhinagar in 2022.

Triple-jumper Abdulla Aboobacker, 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG) silver-medallist and 2023 Asian Athletics Championships gold-medallist, didn’t show up.

National record-holder Rosy Meena Paulraj was also absent in the women’s pole vault event.

It was a three-way competition between Kerala’s Mariya Jaison (Kerala), and Tamil Nadu’s Baranica Elangovan and Pavithra Venkatesah for 3.90m. Baranica cleared the mark in her second attempt, Mariya in her third, and Pavithra failed in all her three attempts.

Baranica went on to scale 4m, which Mariya failed to do, in her second attempt and secured gold. She, then, aimed to break the Grand Prix record of 4.10m, set by herself in Bengaluru in 2023. But she failed to clear 4.11m in all her three attempts.

Hangzhou Asian Games bronze-medallist Vithya Ramraj claimed gold in 57.28s in the women’s 400m hurdles.

Maharashtra’s Abha Khatua, who hold the National record with 18.41m she set at the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar last year, won gold in the women’s shot put event with a best throw of 17.13m. She threw 15.34m, 16.71m, 16.85m, and 17m in her first four attempts before a foul and the best throw in her last attempt.

Abha said that she felt tired and fatigued due to back-to-back competitions and the hot and humid weather. She added that her primary focus is on performing well at the inter-State athletics championships at Panchkula in June and was confident that she has the capacity to surpass the Olympic qualification mark of 18.80m.

“I can even cross 18.90m. Because, my foul throw in Bhubaneswar (last year’s Federation Cup) was 18.85m,” she said.

The results:

Women: Pole vault: 1. Baranica Elangovan (TN) 4m; 2. Mariya Jaison (Ker) 3.90; V. Karthika (TN) 3.10.

400m hurdles: 1. R. Vithya Ramraj (TN) 57.28s; 2. Ramandeep Kaur (Pun) 1:01.60; 3. Mugada Sireesha (AP) 1:03.06.

Javelin throw: 1. Anjani Kumari (Bihar) 47.75m; 2. Hemamalini Neelakanda (TN) 47.47; 3. Lalita Choudhary (Raj) 42.09.

Shot put: 1. Abha Khatua (Mah) 17.13m; 2. M. Sharmila (TN) 12.90; 3. B. Vaishnavi (TN) 12.82.

Triple jump: 1. G. Pavithra (Kar) 13.14m; 2. I. Asha Ilango (TN) 12.98; 3. Sharvari Avinash Parule (Mah) 12.95.

200m: 1. Srabani Nanda (Odi) 24.49s; 2. A.T. Daneshwari (Kar) 25.06; 3. J. Dhivya (TN) 25.26.

1500m: 1. S. Neelambari (TN) 4:24.16s; 2. Thota Sankeertana (Chhattisgarh) 4:26.84; 3. Elavarasi Kumaran (TN) 4:26.96.

400m: Race-A: 1. R. Vithya Ramraj (TN) 53s; 2. T.R. Sinchal Kaveramma (Kar) 53.70; 3. Aishwarya Mishra (Mah)53.79.

Race-B: 1. B.A. Anankha (Ker) 54.37s; 2. M.A. Nathaliea Evangelin (TN) 54.83; 3. Ramandeep Kaur (Pun) 57.40.

5000m: 1. Beby (UP) 17:30.91s; 2. Sanghamitra Mahata (Jha) 17:39.71; 3. Pooja (Raj) 18:09.57.

Men: 400m hurdles: Race-A: 1. Jabir Madari Palliyalil (Ker) 49.94s; 2. T. Santhosh Kumar (TN) 50.14; 3. K. Sathish (TN) 51.46.

Race-B: 1. Akhilbabu Akhilnivas (Ker) 52.47; 2. Jerome Sanjay Nishanth (TN) 53.89; 3. S. Jagathish (TN) 53.98.

200m: Race-A: 1. S. Nallubothu Shanumaga (AP) 21.18s; 2. Varun Oori Manohar (TN) 21.70; 3. S. Tamil Arasu (TN) 21.92.

Race-B: 1. R. Manav (TN) 21.70s; 2. S. Santhosh (TN) 21.94; 3. S. Manojkumar (TN) 22.19.

Pole vault: 1. R. Yugendran (TN) 5.20m; 2. M. Gowtham (TN) 5.10; 3. A.K. Sidharth (Ker) 4.90.

Shot put: 1. Parveen (Har) 16.21m; 2. S. Ebenezer (TN) 15.24.

1500m: 1. Ashok Dandasena (Odi) 3:50.44s; 2. U. Priyanshu (Uttarakhand) 3:50.60; 3. Adarsh Gopi (Ker) 3:51.90.

Javelin throw: 1. Vikash Sharma (Uttarakhand) 52.78m.

Triple jump: 1. S. Mohammed Salahuddin (TN) 16.40m; 2. U. Karthik (Ker) 16.20; 3. J. Mohanraj (TN) 16.02.

5000m: 1. Deepak Bhatt (Uttarakhand) 14:24.66s; 2. K. Anandkrishna (Ker) 14:39.90; 3. Mohan Saini (Goa) 14:50.11.

400: Race-A: 1. T. Santhosh Kumar (TN) 46.46s; 2. K. Avinash (TN) 47.30; 3. Kapil (Har) 47.66.

Race-B: 1. Aakash Babu Chinthala (TN) 47.75s; 2. Naveen Kumar (TN) 48.26; 3. Rajesh Kumar (TN) 48.98.

Race-C: 1. S.K. Kaven (TN) 48.44s; 2. Kapil Khokran (UP) 50.57; 3. Aman Yadav (Del) 53.29.