■ Parul wins steeplechase gold with personal best
Parul Chaudhary of Railways (9:51.01 - personal best) won her second gold medal by beating Maharashtra’s Komal Chandrakant Jagdale (9:51.03) in the women’s 3000m steeplechase final of the 60th National Open Athletics Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, here on Friday.
Though Ram Baboo (Uttar Pradesh) was credited with the only national record-breaking performance when he won the men’s 35km race walk in 2 hours, 46 minutes and 31 seconds, it was the women’s 3000m steeplechase that made for great viewing. B Aishwarya of Railways clinched the women’s long jump crown with an opening leap of 6.52 metres, which helped her become one of the top jumpers in the country.
With a previous best effort of 6.25m in January 2020 and a season best performance of 6.16m at the Railways trials, the 24-yearold Aishwarya pleasantly surprised everyone. The Tamil Nadu mixed 4x400m relay team (T Santhosh Kumar, I Dhivya, R Vithya Ramaraj, P Abhimanyu) came up with a new meet record.
RESULTS: FINAL: MEN: 3000M
STEEPLECHASE: 1. Shankar Lal Swami (Services) 8:46.05; 2. Mohammed Nur Hasan (Services) 8:50.00; 3. Balkishan (Services) 8:50.45.
110M HURDLES: 1. Tejas Ashok Shirse (Maharashtra) 14.09 seconds; 2. Sachin Binu (Services) 14.22s; 3. Tarundeep Singh Bhatia (Services) 14.22s.
HIGH JUMP: 1. Jesse Sandesh (Railways) 2.17 metres; 2. Bharathi Vishwanathan (Services) 2.17m; 3. Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Services) 2.17m.
SHOT PUT: 1. Karanveer Singh (Railways) 18.46 metres; 2. Devinder Singh (Punjab) 18.02m;
3. Vanam Sharma (Rajasthan) 17.96m.
35KM RACE WALK: 1. Ram Baboo (Uttar Pradesh) 2:46:31.00; 2. Sagar Satishchandra Joshi (Gujarat) 2:53:43.00; 3. Surinder Singh (Punjab) 2:54:22.00. WOMEN: 3000M STEEPLECHASE:
1. Parul Chaudhary (Railways) 9:51.01; 2. Komal Chandrakant Jagdale (Maharashtra) 9:51.03;
3. Priti Lamba (Railways) 10:22.45.
100M HURDLES: 1. C Kanimozhi (Railways) 13.54 seconds; 2. Aparna Roy (Kerala) 13.58s; 3. K Nandhini (Tamil Nadu) 13.90s
LONG JUMP: 1. B Aishwarya (Railways) 6.52m; 2. Sherin Abdul Gafoor (Tamil Nadu) 6.27m; 3. Priyanka Kerketta (Railways) 6.05m.
35KM RACE WALK: 1. Ramandeep Kaur (Punjab) 3:15.17.00;
2. Sonal Sukhwal (Rajasthan) 3:18:35.00; 3. Priyanka Patel (Uttar Pradesh) 3:27:56.00.
MIXED: 4X400M RELAY: 1. Tamil Nadu 3:26.22; 2. Punjab 3:27.49; 3. Delhi 3:28.01