Jinson Johnson breaks 800m national record

Johnson timed 1:45.65 to beat Sriram Singh's record, which was the longest standing record in Indian Athletics, by 0.12 seconds.

Johnson came close to Sriram's record, set in the Motreal Olympics on July 25, 1976, by timing 1:45.98 in Bangalore prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Two-time Asian championship medallist Jinson Johnson gave a commanding performance to break Sriram Singh's 42-year-old National record in style and clinch the men's 800m title in the National inter-state athletics championships, at the Indira Gandhi International Stadium here on Wednesday.

Johnson, who had rewritten the 1500m National record in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, timed 1:45.65 to beat Sriram Singh's record by 0.12 seconds.

The top four finishers came inside the Asian Games qualifying mark of 1:47.50.

Really excited Today to find out that my roommate from @GC2018, jinson Johnson Bhai broke the oldest @afiindia national record in 800m which stood for over 42 years, at the #NISSAC2018 . Wishing him all the best for the upcoming @asiangames2018pic.twitter.com/MFOHXpPKQE

— Tejaswin Shankar (@TejaswinShankar) June 27, 2018

 

The 27-year-old from Kerala ran a well-planned race and took lead after 500m. He stayed ahead at a good pace even as Manjit Singh, Mohammed Afsal and Beant Singh gave him a good chase in the final 200m.

Johnson – who came close to Sriram's record, set in the Motreal Olympics on July 25, 1976, by timing 1:45.98 in Bangalore prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics – was emotional on achieving the feat. “I am very happy. I targeted it in 2016 but could not do it. I trained well to qualify for the Asian Games,” said Johnson.

Incidentally, Sriram is a member of the National selection committee. "Many congratulations to Jinson. I had told Jinson in the past that he is capable of breaking my record. I am really happy. Let's win medals in the Asian Games," he said.

Local favourite Hima Das' spirited showing helped her beat the experienced duo of Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda and win the women's 200m title convincingly. The 18-year-old Assamese, who is primarily 400m runner, clocked 23.10 to equal the meet record of Rachita Mistry created in 2000.

Hima and Dutee, who was second with 23.41, came inside the Asian Games qualification mark of 23.50. Srabani timed 23.87 to finish third. Backed by her vociferous supporters, Hima, who ran in lane number seven, had a good start and broke away from the rest in the home stretch through a pleasant drizzle. As Hima, who had clocked 24.02 in the heats on Tuesday, extended her lead, Dutee pushed hard to close the gap but could not catch up with the young talent.

Hima, who gave a better performance than her 23.22 in the National camp in Poland, said, “I was aiming to do well on home turf. ” Dutee should not be too disheartened with her effort as she had said on the previous day that her focus would be on 100m.

Meanwhile, national record holder in men's 400m, Muhammad Anas, did not start in the semifinals race due to fever.