Dutee Chand helped a new-look women’s 4x100m relay team qualify for the coming Asian Championships in Doha at the Athletics Federation of India’s confirmatory trials at the NIS Stadium here on Saturday.
Rajasthan’s Hina, Tamil Nadu’s Archana Saseendran and Kerala’s K. Ranga ran the first three legs for the team which clocked 44.12s (AFI’s qualification time 44.50).
Meanwhile’s Tamil Nadu triple jumper Praveen Chitravel, who had shocked Asian Games champion Arpinder Singh in last month’s Federation Cup in Patiala while qualifying for the Asians with an impressive 16.51m (qual. mark 16.50), could only manage 14.92m in the trials.
But another Tamil Nadu athlete, Federation Cup champion K. Gomathi, was well within the qualification as she clocked 2:04.12s (qual. time 2:05s) in the women’s 800m with quatermiler M.R. Poovamma doing the pace-setting job leading the athletes through a quick opening lap. However Twinkle Choudhary, who had clocked 2:03.67s earlier, could only manage 2:09.44.
The quartermilers, who are preparing for next month’s World Relays in Japan, were made to run the 200m and Poovamma won the race in 24.05s surprising favourite Hima Das (24.21) with Shubha finishing third (24.82).
Arokia Rajiv won the men’s race in 20.72s and was followed by Muhammad Anas (21.09) and M.P. Jabir (21.76).
The AFI will announce the selection committee’s decisions on Saturday’s trials on Monday.
The results (qualifying guidelines for Asian Championships in brackets):
Men: 5000m (13:50.00): Gavit Murali Kumar 14:24.34; Abhishek Paul 14:25.93. Triple jump: (16.50m): Praveen Chithravel 14.92m.
4x100m relay: (39.00s): Harjit Singh, Gurinder Vir Singh, Gurulal Singh and Saifikul Mondal 40.20s.
Women: 800m: (2:05.00): K. Gomathi 2:04.12s; Twinkle Chaudhary 2:09.44s. 400m hurdles: (57.70): M. Arpita 58.05s; Saritaben Gayekwad 58.43.
3000m steeplechase: (9:50.00): Parul Chaudhary 9:56.70s.
Javelin: (58.00m): Sharmila Kumari 55.16m.
Discus: (58.00m): Navjeet Kaur Dhillon 56.32m; Kamalpreet Kaur 56.03m.
