National Open Athletics Championships | Sarvesh Kushare and Anjali Devi set meet records
Sarvesh Kushare and Anjali Devi were the stars on the second day of the 58th National Open Athletics Championships, setting meet records en route gold medal in the men’s high jump and the women’s 400m on Wednesday. Sanjeet Kumar and Chandrelekha earned the title of fastest man and woman of the meet.
Kushare, representing Services, leaped to a new personal best of 2.24m to erase the old meet record of 2.23m set by VS Yadav, set last year in Chennai. The 23-year-old
Also setting a meet record on the day was Anjali Devi of Haryana. The 20-year-old clocked a time of 51.79 seconds to better the previous mark of 51.90 seconds recorded by former Asian Games silver medalist KM Beenamol at the 2002 edition of the tournament. Anjali was also the clear winner in her competition, beating
Among the other athletes to stand out at the Kalinga stadium were Sanjeet Kumar of Services and A
Sanjeet clocked 10.39 seconds to finish just .02 seconds short of the meet record held by Anil Kumar since the 2001 edition of the tournament. Claiming second place was B Siva Kumar of Railways who recorded a time of 10.53 seconds. Vidya Sagar of Services stood on the third step of the podium after crossing the finish line in 10.54 seconds.
In the women’s 100m sprint, 21-year-old Chandralekha clocked a time of 11.47 seconds, to fall .05 seconds short of the meet record set by Saraswati Saha in the 2002 edition of the National Open Championships. The Tamil Nadu athlete though was well in front of statemate S Archana who clocked 11.71 seconds while Reena George of Karnataka took third place with a time of 11.75 seconds.
Asian Games bronze medalist PU Chitra too cemented her status as the premier 1500m runner in the country by claiming gold in the event in Bhubaneshwar. The 23-year-old who was representing Railways clocked 4:24:35 seconds to beat fellow Railways athlete Shipra Sarkar who clocked a time of 4:25:45 seconds while Bihar’s Sugandha Kumari claimed a bronze medal with a time of 4:30.00 seconds.
Unfortunate to miss out on a medal was Japan’s Hitomi Shimura who finished in second place in the women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 13.74 seconds behind C Kanimozhi of Tamil Nadu who clocked a time of 13.71 seconds. However as Shimura was not eligible to compete for a medal, the silver went instead to R Nithya of Tamil Nadu who clocked 13.99 seconds. Purnima Hembram who usually competes in the women’s heptathlon picked up a bronze medal with a time of 14.02 seconds.
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