State’s Prem picks a silver
Telangana hurdler Premkumar clocked 14.24 seconds to take the second position behind J. Surendhar of Tamil Nadu at the National Open Athletics Championships.
Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: Sarvesh Anil Kushare and Anjali Devi were the stars on the second day of the 58th National Open athletics championships, setting meet records en route gold medal in the men’s high jump and the women’s 400m on Wednesday.
On the state front, Telangana’s Kuppusamy Premkumar took the silver after finishing second to J. Surendhar of Tamil Nadu in the men’s 100 metres hurdles.
Prem clocked 14.24 seconds behind Surendhar’s 13.89. Maymon Poulose of Services was third with a time of 14.41 seconds.
Kushare, representing Services, leaped to a new personal best of 2.24m to erase the old meet record of 2.23m set by VS Yadav, set last year in Chennai.
The 23-year-old Kushare’s effort was a new personal best for him, eclipsing his previous best of 2.21m set at the same competition last year.
Kushare was the clear winner, beating Siddharth Yadav of Railways and B. Chetan of Services by a comfortable margin.
Both Yadav and Chetan recorded a best jump of 2.16m on the day, with the silver medal going to Yadav by virtue of fewer failed attempts.
Also setting a meet record on the day was Anjali Devi. The 20-yearold from Haryana clocked a time of 51.79 seconds to better the previous mark of 51.90 seconds recorded by former Asian Games silver medalist K. M. Beenamol at the 2002 edition of the tournament.
Anjali was also the clear winner in her competition, beating second-placed Prachi of Punjab (53.17 seconds) by nearly one and a half seconds.
Completing the podium was ChaviSehrawat of Railways who clocked 53.54 seconds. Japan’s Konomi Takesishi who was part of a three-member Japanese contingent finished sixth with 55.01 seconds. — PTI