57th National Open Athletics Championships, Day 3: A day of records and benchmarks

AFI Media

September 27, 2017

Chennai: Day 3 here at 57th National Open Athletics Championships turned out to be a massive record maker, and breaker, as previous best records tumbled and new benchmarks were set. Events in men’s high jump and men’s 400m hurdles set the meet records straight.

In men’s high jump, Railways’ Siddharth Yadav set a new meet record, towering (2.23m), and Services’ V Bharathi set a better meet record at (2.23m). The previous meet record was held by Tejaswin Shankar at (2.22m). Services’ KS Anil finished third with (2.21m).

Host Tamil Nadu’s Santhosh Kumar bettered the meet record in men’s 400m hurdles with a timing of (50.16 sec). The record was previously held by Joseph G. Abraham at (50.26 sec). Services’ Ramachandran (51.02 sec) and Uttar Pradesh’s Aftab Alam (51.33 sec) finished with a silver and a bronze, respectively.

ONGC’s Jauna Murmu, who finished third in women’s 400m run on day 2, grabbed the gold in women’s 400m hurdles with a timing of (58.25 sec), going past Railways’ Arpitha M. (59.97 sec), who won silver, and Punjab’s Veerpal Kaur (1:00.60 min), who won bronze.

Services’ Ganapathi K (1:27:33.00 hours) and Sandeep Kumar (1:28:30.00 hours) clinched the gold and silver in men’s 20km race walk and All India Police SPO’s Manish Rawat finished third with a timing of (1:28:34.00 hours), winning bronze.

In women’s javelin throw, Anu Rani of the Railways won the gold with a distance of (57.90m). Haryana’s Poonam Rani (55.88m) and Railways’ Sharmila Kumari (53.76m) won the silver and the bronze, respectively.

Dharam Raj Yadav, representing Railways’, came first in men’s discus throw with a distance of (55.08m), beating All India Police SPO’s Prabhjot Singh (53.69m) and Punjab’s Gagandeep Singh (52.53m).

Men’s 3000m steeplechase was won by Services’ Sable Avinash (8:39.81 min). Rajasthan’s Shanker Lal Swami (8:56.68) and Services’ Jaiveer Singh (8:58.99 min), settled for the silver and bronze, respectively.

As for women’s 3000m steeplechase, the gold and silver were won by Railways’ Chinta Yadav (9:49.23 min) and Chhavi Yadav (10:16.34), and the bronze went in Uttar Pradesh’s Khushbu Gupta’s kitty.

In a closely contested event in men’s pole vault, Railways’ J. Preeth (5.00m) grabbed the gold by a minimal margin, going past Services’ Siva (5.00m – silver) and teammate Bimin K.P. (5.00m – bronze).

With a total of (185 points), Railways lead the points tally at the end of day 3, as the next two spots remained unchanged, with Services (136 points) coming second and ONGC (52 points) placed third.