Tamil Nadu’s Praveen Chithravel rewrote the Meet Record with a Triple Jump effort over 17.18m, third best by an Indian, on an action-packed final day of the SNJ 61st National Inter-State Athletics Championships at the Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday. He improved on Arpinder Singh’s meet mark of 17.14m set in Lucknow eight years ago.
India’s season leader Abdulla Aboobacker ensured that it would be a high-octane final by charging himself up to hop, step and jump to 17.14m on his fifth try. That prompted Praveen, who had passed his fifth jump, to return to the runway but he recorded a third foul. Abdulla Aboobacker tried hard but managed 16.98m on his final attempt.
It was the second time inside a month that two Indians had crossed the 17m in the same competition. Abdulla Aboobacker (17.19m) and his Kerala team-mate Karthik Unnikrishnan (17.10m) had achieved that in the Indian Grand Prix in Bhubaneswar on May 21. Karthik finished fourth on Tuesday, managing a best effort of 16.47 while Eldhose Paul took bronze.
There was considerable attention on the women’s Long Jump competition after B Aishwarya (Karnataka) had caused a flutter in the qualifying round with a leap of 6.73m and broken the National Record for women’s Triple Jump 24 hours earlier. Despite fouling five tries, she marked 6.60m in her only legal jump to claim gold ahead of Kerala’s Ancy Sojan and L Sruthilekshmi. World U20 silver medalist Shaili Singh (Uttar Pradesh) was fourth with 6.26m.
Having tasted a rare defeat at the hands of Sarita Romit Singh in the Federation Cup in April this year, Manju Bala Singh (Rajasthan) returned to the Hammer Throw circle to assert her superiority with a 64.19m which was not only the best by an Indian woman this season and a new Meet Record but also passed the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark.
Amlan Borgohain (Assam) completed the men’s sprint double, winning the 200m in 21.00 seconds but his State-mate Hima Das was stopped in her attempt to emulate him. The host’s S Dhanalakshmi won in a photo-finish while Aishwarya Mishra (Maharashtra) took bronze, leaving Odisha’s Srabani Nanda (23.75) and Priya H Mohan (24.01) outside the medal bracket.
Vithya Ramraj (Tamil Nadu) came up with a personal best time of 57.08 seconds to win the women’s 400m Hurdles gold. MP Jabir (Kerala) claimed top honours in the men’s 400m Hurdles in 49.76 seconds.
The results (finals):
Men
200m: 1. Amlan Borgohain (Assam) 21.00 seconds; 2. Abhin B Devadiga (Karnataka) 21.42; 3. Rahul Ramesh Kadam (Maharashtra) 21.68.
5000m: 1. Harendra Kumar (Delhi) 14:01.50; 2. Amit Jangir (Rajasthan) 14:02.01; 3. Dharmender (Rajasthan) 14:02.13
400m Hurdles: 1. MP Jabir (Kerala) 49.76 seconds; 2. T Santhosh Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 50.16; 3. Dhaval Mahesh Uttekar (Gujarat) 50.55.
Triple Jump: 1. Praveen Chithravel (Tamil Nadu) 17.18m (New Meet Record. Old: 17.17, Arpinder Singh, Lucknow, 2014); 2. Abdulla Aboobacker (Kerala) 17.14; 3. Eldhose Paul (Kerala) 16.81.
Hammer Throw: 1. Neeraj Kumar (Rajasthan) 65.52m; 2. Harvendra Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 64.97; 3. Damneet Singh (Punjab) 63.15.
4x400m relay (combining races A & B): 1. India A (Muhammed Ajmal, Mijo Chacko Kurain, Naganathan Pandi and S Arokia Rajiv) 3:05.34 (New Meet Record. Old: 3:09.29, Kerala, Chennai, 2006); 2. Sri Lanka 3:06.05; 3. Karnataka 3:13.86.
Women
200m: 1. S Dhanalakshmi (Tamil Nadu) 23.27 seconds; 2. Hima Das (Assam) 23.29; 3. Aishwarya Kailash Mishra (Maharashtra) 23.72.
5000m: 1. Sanjivani Baburao Jadhav (Maharashtra) 16:11.46; 2. Shraddha Rajani Karthiriya (Gujarat) 16:14.04; 3. Seema (Himachal Pradesh) 16;25.47.
400m Hurdles: 1. R Vithya Ramaraj (Tamil Nadu) 57.08 seconds; 2. Anu Raghavan (Kerala) 58.99; 3. Arathi R (Kerala) 59.26
Long Jump: 1. B Aishwarya (Karnataka) 6.60m; 2. Ancy Sojan (Kerala) 6.49; 3. L Sruthilekshmi (Kerala) 6.35.
Hammer Throw: 1. Manju Bala Simgh Singh (Rajasthan) 64.19m (New Meet Record. Old: 63.28, Sarita Romit Singh, Guwahati, 2018); 2. Sarita Romit Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 62.20; 3. Renu (Haryana) 59.83.
4x400m relay: 1. Haryana (Summy, Nisha, Bhateri and Simmy) 3:41.90; 2. Tamil Nadu 3:42.39; 3. Kerala 3:42.92.
