As he attempted the 2.30m that would have taken him to the London Worlds, Tejaswin Shankar was a picture of disappointment.
“There goes my Worlds, the rain was the hero today,” said the 18-year-old from Delhi after bringing the bar down on his chances though he broke the meet record comfortably on his way to gold with a 2.23m clearance at the 57th National inter-State athletics championship here on Monday night.
He was clearly the day’s hero at the Acharya Nagarjuna University ground here, the one athlete who came very close to his personal best, the national record 2.26m which he achieved in Coimbatore last year.
Shankar had a lot to say and his jumps did all the talking. He was injured during the recent Federation Cup and though he was fit around the time of the recent Bhubaneswar Asians, only two jumpers were fielded for the championships though as host, India could have fielded three.
“I’m not angry but I felt good today. I was targeting that 2.30,” he said.
Sub-par show
Rain was clearly the spoilsport. There was a steady drizzle all through the day and like shot putter Manpreet Kaur earlier, national women’s javelin throw record holder Annu Rani who had qualified for the Worlds earlier, slipped to a mediocre 54.29m, more than six metres below her personal best 61.86.
Punjab discus thrower Prabhjot Singh, who had been to the junior and youth Worlds earlier, summed it up nicely after taking the men’s silver.
“All our focus was on how to save our discus from the rain, not on the competition,” he said.
The results:
Men: 4x100m relay: 1. Tamil Nadu (Athistam, Sivakumar, Elakkiyadasan, P. Kumar) 41.13s, 2. Maharashtra (41.25), 3. Kerala (41.51). 3000m steeplechase: 1. Jaiveer (Har) 8:53.04s, 2. Naveen (Har) 8:57.23, 3. Karamvir (Har) 8:59.12.
High jump: 1. Tejaswin Shankar (Del) 2.33m (MR, OR: 2.22 Harishankar Roy, 2007), 2. B. Chethan (Kar) 2.19, 3. Ajay Kumar (Har) 2.17. Discus: 1. Dharmraj Yadav (UP) 55.55, 2. Prabhjot Singh (Pun) 52.91, 3. Baljinder Singh (Pun) 51.59.
Women: 4x100m relay: 1. Kerala (Sruthi Raju, Ramya Rajan, M. Sugina, Merlin Joseph) 46.75s, 2. Karnataka (47.50), 3. Maharashtra (47.79).
3000m steeplechase: 1. Chinta Yadav (AFI) 10:10.22, 2. Vijay Laxmi (UP) 10:41.41, 3. Varsha Bhawari (Mah) 10:48.37. 20,000m walk: 1. B. Soumya (Del) 1:42:23.68, 2. Karamjit Kaur (Pun) 1:44.47.69, 3. Priyanka (UP) 1:45:44.28
Triple jump: 1. N.V. Sheena (Ker) 12.78m, 2. Joyline M. Lobo (Kar) 12.52, 3. G. Karthika (AP) 12.51. Javelin: 1. Annu Rani (UP) 54.29, 2. Poonam Rani (Har) 51.14, 3. Rashmi Shetty (Kar) 47.76.
Pole vault: 1. Khyathi Vakaria (Kar) 3.70, 2. Kiranbir Kaur (Pun) 3.40, 3. Manjuka (TN) 3.30 .
