For a few moments on Saturday evening, it looked like Haryana teenager Kiran could pull off a upset. Shortly after the final turn in the women’s 400m final in the 59th National Open here, the 19-year-old raced to the fore, leaving behind internationals Anjali Devi and V.K. Vismaya.
But even as Anjali appeared to fade away, Vismaya found a new gear with about 30m to go and virtually pipped Kiran at the tape, clocking 52.71s. Kiran timed at a personal best 52.73 while Anjali was third with 51.53.
“After the semifinal, somehow I thought I’d win this, this is my first gold at the senior National level, in fact this is my first National medal too,” said Vismaya, a member of the gold-winning women’s mile relay team at last year’s Asian Games and who played a big role in India qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in the mixed relay at the recent Worlds.
Asian champion Tajinderpal Singh produced a big one with his third throw and broke his own national shot put record with a 20.92 effort. It bettered his 20.75 which came with the Asiad gold in Jakarta last year.
“I was expecting something between 21.30 to 21.40 today. My last throw was foul, but when they measured it unofficially, it was found to be 21.29,” said Tajinder. Had that been a legal attempt, it would easily given him the Tokyo Olympics ticket (entry standard 21.10m).
“I will have another chance to get that at the World Military Games in Wuhan later this month. I was in good shape at the Worlds but since there were just three throws, I was under pressure,” he said.
Sreeshankar too good
Long jumper M. Sreeshankar messed up four of his six jumps as he produced 7.93m, the same distance he had done in qualification.
“The runway was wet after the heavy rain this evening, that affected me a bit especially when I put all my power in my take-off. But one of the foul jumps was huge, it seemed to be better than my national record,” said the national record holder.
The results: Men, 400m: 1. Nirmal Noah Tom (AFI) 45.88s, 2. Amoj Jacob (AFI) 46.32; 3. K.S. Jeevan (AFI) 46.77; 5,000m: 1. G. Lakshmanan (Ser) 14:24.85s, 2. Bugatha Srinu (Ser) 14:29.22, 3. Man Singh (Ser) 14:32.66; 4x100m relay: 1. Services (39.92s), 2. Punjab (40.36), 3. Railway (40.48); Long jump: 1. M. Sreeshankar (Ker) 7.93m, 2. R. Swaminathan (TN) 7.71, 3. Bikramjit Singh (Pun) 7.62; Shot put: 1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (AFI) 20.92m NR, OR 20.75, 2. Omprakash Singh (ONGC) 19.01, 3. Sourabh Vij (ONGC) 17.79.
Women, 400m: 1. V.K. Vismaya (AFI) 52.71s, 2. Kiran (Har) 52.73, 3. Anjali Devi (Har) 53.03; 5,000m: 1. Parul Chaudhary (Rly) 16:20.92s, 2. L. Suriya (16:23.39), 3. Sonika (Har) 16:24.72; 4x100m relay: Railways (45.23s MR, OR 45.24), 2. Malaysia (45.97), 3. Tamil Nadu (46.69).
Long jump: 1. Priyanka Kerketta (Jha) 6.16m, 2. Rintu Mathew (6.09), 3. V. Neena (Rly) 5.97; Pole vault: 1. Krishna Rachan (Rly) 3.80m, 2. Nivya Antony (Ker) 3.50, 3. Dija K. Chandran (3.30); Discus: 1. Kamalpreet Kaur (Rly) 54.94m, 2. Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (Pun) 54.14, 3. Suravi Biswas (WB) 49.85; 20km walk: 1. Bhawana Jat (Rly) 1:38:30.00s MR, OR 1:39:30.50, 2. Ravina (Har) 1:39:32.00, 3. Sonal Sukhwal (Raj) 1:39:37.00.
Mixed, 4x400m relay: 1. Delhi (3:27.93s), 2. Railways (3:28.19), 3. Haryana (3:28.32).
