AFI Media
17/03/2019
Patiala.Anu Rani rewrote the record books on the third day of the 23rd Federation Cup in Patiala by setting a new national mark in the javelin throw event. The 26-year-old from Uttar Pradesh flung the spear to a distance of 62.34m, erasing her own national record of 61.86m that she had recorded at the 2017 edition of the Federation Cup in Patiala.
The 2014 Asian Games bronze medalist started with a throw of 54.67m, fouled her second effort and then improved to a mark of 58.35m. With the Athletics Federation of India’s guidelines standing at 58m, that throw was enough to qualify her for the Asian Championships. However, Rani would follow up that mark with a mammoth effort of 62.34m in her penultimate attempt of the evening. The throw exceeded not just her old national record but also the qualification standard of 61.50m for the IAAF World Championships 2019 that will be held in Doha between September and October this year.
“I have thrown over 64m in practice very often so I was expecting throw that much in the competition. But I was making some mistakes in my technique. Now that I am going to the Asian Championships, I will try to improve on those mistakes,” says Anu Rani after her competition.
Rani was well clear of her field. The silver medal was claimed by Haryana’s Kumari Sharmila who recorded a best throw of 53.98m in her final attempt of the competition. The third step on the podium was claimed by Rupinder Kaur of Punjab who managed a distance of 53.90m.
Rani was not the only athlete to meet the qualifying standard for the Asian Championships. Gavit Murali Kumar of Gujarat led four other athletes past the qualifying guideline of 29.50.00 in the men’s 10000m race. Gavit Kumar, who had won the men’s 5000m race on the first day of the Federation Cup, crossed the finish line in 29.21.99. He was followed by Abhishek Pal of Uttar Pradesh who recorded a time of 29.22.37 while the bronze medal went to KalidasHirave who clocked 29.25.16. Defending champion G Lakshmanan came fourth with a time of 29.26.41 while Vasudev Nishad came fifth in a creditable time of 29.31.42.
While she didn’t manage to meet the AFI guideline, Kerala’s Krishna Rachan also managed to set a new meet record in the women’s pole vault competition. The 25-year-old improved on V Surekha’s five-year-old meet record of 4.05m by clearing a height of 4.06m. The jump was also a new personal best for Rachan who had a previous best of 3.95m recorded at Bhubaneswar in 2018.
Rachan was in a competition of her own with the silver medal being won by Mariya Jaison of Kerala with a best clearance of 3.80m. KM Sangeeta of Uttar Pradesh won a bronze medal for her efforts. She cleared a height of 3.50m.
Haryana athlete Renu, laid stake to the claim of being the best triple jumper in the country today after she won the event on Sunday. The 21-year-old recorded a best jump of 13.48m to clinch the gold medal ahead of Punjab’s Niharika Vashisht who had a best jump of 13.05m and Asian Indoor Games silver medalist Sheena NV who had a best effort on the day of 13.04m.
The men’s discus throw produced some good efforts even though the athletes failed to qualify for the Asian Championships. It was only a single centimeter that determined the winner Punjab’s Gagandeep Singh won gold with an effort of 53.30m while Tamil Nadu’s Mithravarun S managed to take second place with a throw of 53.29m. Mithravarun was nowhere near medal contention until the last throw of the competition but eventually fell just short of the top of the podium. Rajasthan’s Praveen Kumar clinched the silver and bronze medals with throws of 53.14m.
