Federation Cup 2023 | Tajinderpal Toor and Annu Rani clinch gold with ease
On Tuesday, the second day of the Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships, shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, the defending Asian Games champion, and javelin thrower Annu Rani, the Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, shared the spotlight by winning gold in their respective disciplines.
The 30-year-old Annu had a below-par performance when she threw the spear 59.24 metres, but it was still sufficient for her to surpass the benchmark established by the Athletics Federation of India for qualifying for the forthcoming Asian Championship and the Asian Games. Annu, who is competing for Uttar Pradesh at the championships, has a personal best jump of 63.82 metres, which is also the national record.
The 28-year-old Toor, who is also an Asian record holder, threw the iron ball a distance of 20.42m to earn the gold. Toor beat both the Asian Championships and the 19-meter qualifying record for the Asian Games. Sahib Singh (19.23m), who finished in second place, and Karanveer Singh (19.05m), who finished third, both exceeded the threshold.
Three participants qualified at the Asian Championships in the women's 100m hurdles heats. Jyothi Yarraji of Andhra Pradesh, the current holder of the national record, lowered her meet record by clocking 13.18 seconds. The other two competitors that qualified for the continental competition in July were R Nithya Ramaraj of Tamil Nadu (13.62 seconds) and Pragyan Prasant Sahu (13.61 seconds).
Md Nur Hasan and Priti Lamba, who competed in the men's and women's 3000m steeplechase events, respectively, won gold late on Monday night. The two also met the requirements for their respective events' Asian Championships qualifying.