For a few moments on Saturday evening, it looked like Haryana teen Kiran could pull off the upset of the year in Indian athletics. Shortly after the last turn in the women's 400m final of the 59th National Open Championships at the Birsa Munda Stadium here, the 19-year-old raced to the fore, leaving behind star internationals Anjali Devi and VK Vismaya.
But even as Anjali, the lone Indian to run the 400m at the recently concluded Doha Worlds, appeared to fade away, Vismaya found a new gear with about 30m to go and virtually pipped Kiran at the tape clocking 52.71s. Kiran was timed at a personal best of 52.73s, while Anjali, the country's fastest quartermiler this season, finished third at 53.51s. Another international Jisna Mathew, who felt her calf muscles tighten up, pulled up near the first corner.
“After the semifinal, somehow I thought I'd win this, this is my first gold at the senior National level, in fact this is my first National medal too,” said Vismaya, a member of the gold-winning women's 4x400 relay team at last year's Asian Games and who played a big role in India qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in the mixed relay event at the recent Worlds.
For Kiran, who trains with Anjali under coach Rohtas Siwach in Rohtak, it was a big surprise too.
“This is my first senior National meet and I took up athletics seriously only about one and half years ago,” she said.
A little later, Asian champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor produced a big one with his third throw and broke his own national shot put record with a 20.92m effort which bettered his 20.75m mark, which came with the Asian Games gold in Jakarta last year. However, his last three attempts were all fouls.
“I was expecting something between 21.30 to 21.40 today. My last throw was a foul, but when they measured it unofficially, it was found to be 21.29m,” said Tajinder. Had that been a legal attempt, it would have easily given him the Tokyo Olympics ticket (entry standard 21.10m).
“I will have another chance to get that at the World Military Games in Wuhan later this month. I was in good shape at the Worlds but since there were just three throws, I was under pressure.”
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Long jumper M. Sreeshankar also had a foul-ridden series, messing up four of his six jumps, as he finally produced a 7.93m effort, the same distance he had done in the qualification round.
“The runway was wet after the heavy rain this evening, that affected me a bit especially when I put all my power in my take-off. But one of the foul jumps was huge, it seemed to be better than my national record,” said the national record holder.
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