Animesh Kujur, Devyaniba Zala were declared best male and female athletes of fourth Indian Open U23 athletics meet

Patna

Odisha’s Animesh Kujur and Devyaniba Zala of Gujarat walked away with best male and female athlete awards on the final day of the fourth edition of Indian Open U23 Athletics Competition here at Patliputra Sports Complex on Monday. Several meet records were also erased on the final day.

Kujur was one of the athletes, who entered his name in record books on Monday. Winner of 100m gold added 200m gold to his kitty today with a time of 20.65 seconds, which was better than his own meet record of 20.87 seconds set in 2023.

Gujarat’s Devyaniba Zala performance over 400m (53.53 seconds) got her best female athlete award of the meet.

Results

Women

200m: Kusum Thakur (Himachal Pradesh) 24.19 seconds, Sudeshna Hanmant Shivankar (Maharashtra) 24.24 seconds, Samriti Jamwal (Himachal Pradesh) 24.49 seconds.

5,000m: Sonam (Delhi) 16:58.54 seconds, Bushra Khan Gauri (Madhya Pradesh) 17:11.24 seconds, Latika Talwar (Rajasthan) 17:24.66 seconds.

400m hurdles: Deekshita Ramakrishna Gowda (Karnataka) 1:00.40 seconds, Neha Vishal Dhabale (Maharashtra) 1:00.77 seconds, Moumi Jana (West Bengal) 1:0.1.14 seconds.

Long jump: Moumita Mondal (West Bengal) 6.27m, Lakshmi Gemmela (Andhra Pradesh) 5.91m, Deesha Ganapathy (Karnataka) 5.86m.

Discus throw: Sanya Yadav (Haryana) 50.59m (meet record previous mark of 48.39m was set by M Karuniya in 2022), Grima (Haryana) 49.07m, Neetu Kumari (Rajasthan) 48.26m.

Pole vault: Pavithra Venkatesh (Tamil Nadu) 3.80m, Nitika Anup Akare (Madhya Pradesh) 3.50m, Rajni (Haryana) 3.40m.

Heptathlon: Anamika KA (Kerala) 5160 points (meet record, previous mark of 5008 points was set by S Kumari in 2023), Pooja (Haryana) 5066 points, Deepika S (Tamil Nadu) 4975 points.

Men

200m: Animesh Kujur (Odisha) 20.65 seconds (improve his own meet record of 20.87 seconds set in 2023), Nalubothu (Andhra Pradesh) 21.29 seconds, Tamil Arasu S (Tamil Nadu) 21.52 seconds.

800m: Shakeel (Rajasthan) 1:51.90 seconds, Tushar Vasant (Karnataka) 1:51.97 seconds, Lokesh K (Karnataka) 1:53.23 seconds.

5,000m: Puneet Yadav (Haryana) 14:29.15 seconds, Rahul Kumar Verma (Chhattisgarh) 14:30.54 seconds, Kunal (Rajasthan) 14:32.30 seconds.

400m hurdles: Karna Bag (West Bengal) 50.91 seconds, Murad Simran (Gujarat) 50.91 seconds, Nikunj Zala (Gujarat) 51.17 seconds.

High jump: Jomon Joy (Kerala) 2.17m (meet record, previous mark of 2.15m was set by Md Asraf Ali in 2023), Sudeep (Karnataka) 2.11m, Md Asraf Ali (West Bengal) 2.08m.

Long jump: Anurag CV (Kerala) 7.87m (meet record, previous mark of 7.81m was set by Jeswin Aldrin in 2021), V Sriram (Tamil Nadu) 7.70m, Sanmath Darshan (Tamil Nadu) 7.68m.

Javelin throw: Anand Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 74.75m, Vikash Sharma (Uttarakhand) 71.99m, Niraj M (Maharashtra) 71.33m.

Hammer throw: Mayank Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 60.87m, Mukul (Madhya Pradesh) 60.39m, M Nadeem (Uttar Pradesh) 60.29m.

Pole vault: Dev Meena (Madhya Pradesh) 5.20m (meet record, previous mark of 5.10m was set in 2021 by Parshant Kanhiya), Kuldeep Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 5.15m, Ramratan (Rajasthan) 4.90m