For the first time in two days, the 57th National Open athletics championship here on Wednesday came to life as two new meet records were created in the men’s 400m hurdles and men’s high jump events.
T. Santhosh Kumar, son of a farmer in Madurai, bagged the gold in 400m hurdles in a time of 50.16seconds, erasing the record set by Joseph Abraham (50.26) in Bhopal in 2009. Later, Siddarth Yadav of Railways pipped V. Bharathi (Services) on countback for high jump gold, clearing 2.23m. The 24-year-old bettered the record set by Tejaswin Shankar (2.22m) set in Lucknow last year.
Going for 2.23m, both Siddarth and Bharathi cleared the requisite height, but since the former overcame the hurdle in his first attempt — Bharathi did it in his third — he was declared the winner and the owner of the record. In fact, this is Siddarth’s first major National event in two years. “I had a back injury since 2014. The gold medal was unexpected,” he said.
Gapsing for breath, Santhosh Kumar was obviously elated. “All my hardwork at Patiala has borne fruit. Thanks to coaches Basanth Raj and [foreign coach] Galina Bukharina, I was able to do well,” said the 19-year-old Santhosh.
Reigning Asian championship gold medallist Sudha Singh of Railways failed to finish the women’s 3000m steeplechase. Leading the final lap by a considerable distance and with the final hurdle remaining, Sudha moved away from the track the moment Chinta Yadav caught up with her. Chinta went on to win the gold. Speaking to mediapersons, Sudha said: “I was feeling tired and my legs were trembling.”
- Men:400mH: 1. T. Santhosh Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 50.16s (NMR) (OMR: Joseph Abraham, Bhopal, 50.26, 2009), 2. Ramachandran (Services) 51.02, 3. Aftab Alam (Uttar Pradesh) 51.33; 20Km walk: 1. K. Ganapathi (Services) 1:27:33.00, 2. Sandeep Kumar (Services) 1:28:30.00, 3. Manish Rawat (All India Police Sports Board) 1:28:34.00; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Sable Avinash (Services) 8:39.81, 2. Shanker Lal Swami (Rajasthan) 8:56.68, 3. Jaiveer Singh (Services) 8:58.99; Pole vault: 1. J. Preeth (Railways) 5.00m, 2. S. Siva (Services) 5.00m, 3. K.P. Bimin 5.00; Discus throw: 1. Dharam Raj Yadav (Services) 55.08m, 2. Prabhjot Singh (All India Police Sports Board) 53.69, 3. Gagandeep Singh (Punjab) 52.53; High jump: 1. Siddarth Yadav (Railways) 2.23m (NMR) (OMR: Tejaswin Shankar, 2.22, 2016), 2. V. Bharathi (Services) 2.23, 3. K.S. Anil (Services) 2.21.
- Women:400mH: 1. Jauna Murmu (ONGC) 58.25s, 2. M. Arpitha (Railways) 59.97, 3. Veerpal Kaur (Punjab) 1:00.60; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Chinta Yadav (Railways) 9:49.23, 2. Chhavi Yadav (Railways) 10:16.34, 3. Khushbu Gupta (Uttar Pradesh) 10:44.40; Javelin throw: 1. Anu Rani (Railways) 57.90m, 2. Poonam Rani (Haryana) 55.88m, 3. Sharmila Kumari (Railways) 53.76m; ; Triple jump: 1. D. Aishwarya (Karnataka) 13.03m, 2. Rintu Mathew (Railways) 12.86, 3. Joyline Mural Lobo (LIC) 12.84.
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