Arpinder Singh mocked the hot and humid conditions as he improved the National record in men’s triple jump with an effort of 17.17 metres on the final day of the 54th National inter-State athletics championship at the PAC Stadium here on Sunday.
The 23-year-old ONGC employee shocked the previous holder Renjith Maheshwary, who set it in 2010, by ten centimetres and added insult to injury by beating him to the gold by 63 centimetres.
Interestingly, Arpinder improved on his personal best of 16.84 metres, with one of his two valid jumps as he had no mark on four of his jumps. In the process, he also went past the Commonwealth Games qualification mark of 16.83 metres with ease. His first good jump on the third attempt measured 16.49 metres.
M.R. Poovamma outclassed a strong field that included Olympian Tintu Luka, in the women’s 400m with a new meet mark of 51.73 seconds that beat Mandeep Kaur’s 51.74 set in 2008.
It was easy to announce Arpinder Singh (1174 points) of Punjab and Poovamma (1141) of Karnataka as the best male and female athletes respectively. The men’s, women’s and overall team honours were bagged by Kerala ahead of Tamil Nadu.
The results: Men: 100m: 1. Krishnakumar Rane 10.32 (NMR, old 10.36); 2. Manikanta Raj 10.52; 3. Anirudh Gujar 10.63. 400m: 1.Arokia Rajiv 46.13; 2. Kunhu Muhammed 46.17; 3. Sachin Roby 46.79. 1,500m: 1. Sajeesh Joseph 3:48.16; 2. Anil Kumar 3:50.41; 3. Chandrakant Manwadkar 3:50.89. 10,000m: 1. Suresh Kumar Patel 30:00.03; 2. Rahul Kumar Pal 30:36.69; 3. Kheta Ram 30:50.95. 110m hurdles: 1. Siddhant Thingalaya 13.84; 2. Surendhar 13.97; 3. Prem Kumar 14.06. Triple jump: 1. Arpinder Singh 17.17 (NR, old 17.07); 2. Renjith Maheshwary 16.54; 3. Karthik 15.91. Hammer throw: 1. Charodaya Narain Singh 69.38 (NMR, old 68.98); 2. Kaushal Singh 65.31; 3. Neeraj Kumar 63.74. 4x400m relay: 1. Kerala 3:10.64; 2. Karnataka 3:11.39; 3. Tamil Nadu 3:16.82.
Women: 100m: 1. Saradha Narayanan 11.39 (NMR, old 11.48); 2. H.M. Jyothi 11.49; 3. Srabani Nanda 11.59. 400m: 1. M.R. Poovamma 51.73; 2. Tintu Luka 53.22; 3. Debashree Majumdar 53.54. 1,500m: 1. O.P. Jaisha 4:16.27; 2. Sini Markose 4:18.94; 3. Jhuma Khatoon 4:20.53. 10,000m: 1. Preeja Sridharan 34:34.98; 2. Suriya 35:26.75; 3. Monika Athare 38:19.93. 100m hurdles: 1. K.V. Sajitha 14.16; 2. Gayathri 14.21; 3. Hemashree 14.51. Discus: 1. Pramila 46.99; 2. Vasumathy 42.12; 3. Ankita Julka 41.03. Hammer throw: 1. Manju Bala 62.74 (NR, old 62.67); 2. Gunjan Singh 61.19; 3. Ritu Dhiman 59.96. Heptathlon: 1. Liksy Joseph 5386; 2. Niksy Joseph 5154; 3. Purnima Hembram 4932. 4x400m relay: 1. Kerala 3:38.40; 2. West Bengal 3:50.84; 3. Uttar Pradesh 3:57.82. 20km walk: 1. Rani Yadav 1:46:49.00; 2. Shanty Kumari 1:58:16.00; 3. Rajani 2:01:29.00.
