National Federation Cup | Kirpal Singh Batth sets new meet record in men's discus throw, Seema Punia wins in women's event
A file image of Seema Punia.
|(Twitter)
Kirpal Singh Batth broke the 22-year-old meet record in the men's discus throw with a 61.83m performance, which was also a career-best. Batth's previous record throw was 59.74 meters, which he achieved in 2016; on Tuesday, though, four of the 29-year-tries olds went beyond 60 meters.
Seema Punia, a former Asian Games champion and Tokyo Olympian, won the women's discus throw gold medal on Tuesday in Kozhikode at the National Federation Cup Senior Athletics 2022. Punia, a four-time Commonwealth Games medalist, won with a distance of 54.83 metres, beating Nidhi Rani (52.18 metres) and Sonal Goyal (50.62 metres).
At the India Open throws event earlier this year, Seema Punia had already met both the Asian and CWG qualification requirements. She is yet to be selected for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Chanda set the quickest time in the women's 800m with a time of 2:02.11, while Lili Das took silver with a time of 2:03.23. Both athletes were able to surpass AFI's qualification requirements for the next Asian Games.
Swapna Barman, the incumbent Asian Games heptathlon winner, finished 551 points ahead of her nearest challenger Mareena George in the women's heptathlon. Sonu Kumari came in third with 4961 points.
Manjit Singh, an Asian Games winner, had a terrible performance in the men's 800m race, finishing sixth. Krishan Kumar (1:47.43) finished first on the podium, followed by Mohammed Afsal (1:47.45) and Anu Kumar (1:47.81).
MP Jabir, a previous Asian championships medalist, and Dharun Ayyasamy, a past Asian championships medalist, were excellent in the heats and advanced to the final on Wednesday.
Aishwarya Kaila Mishra (23.57 seconds), Priya Mohan (24.00 seconds), and Hima Das (24.062 seconds) were the three leading racers in the women's 200m heats, qualifying for Wednesday's final.
