Two-time Asian championship medallist Jinson Johnson gave a commanding performance to break Sriram Singh’s four-decade-old National record in style and clinch the men’s 800m title in the National inter-State athletics championships here on Wednesday.
Johnson, who had rewritten the 1500m National record in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, timed 1:45.65 to beat Sriram Singh’s record by 0.12 seconds.
The top-four finishers came inside the Asian Games qualifying mark of 1:47.50.
The 27-year-old from Kerala ran a well-planned race and took lead after 500m. He stayed ahead at a good pace even as Manjit Singh, Mohammed Afsal and Beant Singh gave him a good chase in the final 200m.
Johnson — who came close to Sriram’s record, set in the Montreal Olympics on July 25, 1976, by timing 1:45.98 in Bengaluru prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics — was emotional on achieving the feat.
“I am very happy. I targeted it in 2016 but could not do it. I trained well to qualify for the Asian Games,” said Johnson. Incidentally, Sriram is a member of the National selection committee.
Hima Das’ spirited showing helped her beat the experienced duo of Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda and win the women’s 200m title convincingly. The 18-year-old Assamese, who is primarily a 400m runner, clocked 23.10 to equal the meet record of Rachita Mistry set in 2000.
Hima and Dutee, who was second with 23.41, came inside the Asian Games qualification mark of 23.50. Srabani timed 23.87 to finish third.
Pulling away
Backed by her vociferous supporters, Hima, who ran in lane seven, had a good start and broke away from the rest in the home stretch through a pleasant drizzle.
As Hima, who had clocked 24.02 in the heats on Tuesday, extended her lead, Dutee pushed hard to close the gap but could not catch up.
The results: Men: 200m (Asian qualifying mark 20.87): 1. Muhammed Anas (Ker) 20.98, 2. Elakkiya Dasan (TN) 21.31, 3. Parveen Kumar (Har) 21.43.
800m (AQM 1:47.50): 1. Jinson Johnson (Ker) 1:45.65 (NR, Old 1:45.77, Sriram Singh, Montreal Olympics, 1976), 2. Manjit Singh (Har) 1:46.24, 3. Mohammed Afsal (Man) 1:46.79.
Long jump (AQM 7.81m): 1. Shreeshankar (Ker) 7.76m, 2. Mehakpreet Singh (Pun) 7.63m, 3. Ankit Sharma (MP) 7.61m.
Pole vault (AQM 5.45m): 1. Kundan (Har) 5.10m (NMR, Old 5.05m, Gajanan Upadhyay, 2007), 2. S. Siva (TN) 5.05m, 3. Anoop C.B. (Ker) 4.95m.
Shot put (AQM 19.50m): 1. Tejinder Pal Singh Toor (Pun) 19.37m, 2. Naveen Chhikara (Har) 19.27m, 3. Jasdeep Singh (Pun) 18.99m; Decathlon (AQM 7749): 1. Daya Ram (Raj) 6919 points, 2. Suren R. (TN) 6732, 3. Boota Singh (AP) 6722.
Women: 200m (AQM 23.50): 1. Hima Das (Asm) 23.10 (Equalled MR, Rachita Mistry, 2000), 2. Dutee Chand (Odi) 23.41, 3. Srabani Nanda (Odi) 23.87.
800m (AQM 2:03.00): 1. Komal Chodhary (Har) 2:06.68, 2. Shipra Sarkar (WB) 2:07.02, 3. Archana Adhav (Mah) 2:07.22.
Long jump (AQM 6.34m): 1. Rintu Mathew (Mani) 6.33m, 2. Neena Pinto (Ker) 6.33m, 3. Karthika G. (AP) 5.98m.
Javelin (AQM 59m): 1. Annu Rani (UP) 54.32m, 2. Kumari Sharmila (Har) 54.21m, 3. Rupinder Kaur (Pun) 52.94m.
Tuesday’s results: Men: 5000m (AQM 13:50.00): 1. G. Lakshmanan (TN) 13:58.63, 2. Arjun Kumar (UP) 14:06.98, 3. Suresh Kumar (UP) 14:11.49.
Women: High jump (AQM 1.87m): 1. Angel Devasia (Ker) 1.78m, 2. Rubina Yadav (Har) 1.75m, 3. Laimwn Nazary (Asm) and Abhinaya Shetty (Kar) 1.70m.
Hammer (AQM 60m): 1. Sarita R. Singh (UP) 63.28m (NMR, Old 63.22m Sarita Singh, 2017) 2. Nidhi (UP) 58.14m, 3. Jyoti Jakhar Rana (Har) 55.72m.
