Inter-State Athletics: TN clinches two gold

The home fans were in for a double delight as Tamil Nadu clinched two gold medals on the third day – Sunday – of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.

While the men’s 4x100m relay team created a meet record – 39.88 seconds – en route to glory, C Kanimozhi won the women’s 100m hurdles yellow metal by crossing the finish line in 13.62s. In the last event of the day, the Tamil Nadu men’s relay quartet – comprising S Tamil Arasu, A Vignesh, K Elakkiyadasan and B Siva Kumar – won the final without much sweat, ensuring the local supporters returned home happy.

Punjab (40.46s) and Maharashtra (40.88s) finished second and third respectively. In women’s 100m hurdles, Tamil Nadu occupied two spots on the podium as Kanimozhi and PM Thabitha (14.09s) came first and third respectively. Sandwiched between the Tamil Nadu women was West Bengal’s Moumita Mondal, who recorded a timing of 13.86s.

Jyothi Yarraji of Andhra Pradesh, who broke the event’s national record thrice last month, endured a forgettable outing since she fell after the last hurdle. After lying on the track for a few seconds post her fall, Jyothi finished seventh in 29.92s.

In men’s 110m hurdles, Tamil Nadu’s Surendhar Jayakumar bagged the silver medal with a timing of 14.18s while Siddhanth Thingalaya from Maharashtra (13.93s) and Tarundeep Singh (14.21s) of Punjab secured gold and bronze respectively.

Meanwhile, in the men’s high jump event, Tamil Nadu athlete Bharathi Viswanathan completed the podium with a best effort of 2.18m. In the final, he finished behind gold medallist Sarvesh Anil Kushare (2.24m) of Maharashtra and the second-placed Jesse Sandesh (2.21m) from Karnataka.

Aishwarya comes up with all-time 2nd-best effort

Karnataka’s B Aishwarya produced the second-best long jump effort by any Indian woman as she cleared a stunning 6.73m in the qualification round.

The 24-year-old improved 21cm over her earlier personal best of 6.52m, which she had cleared while winning gold in the National Open Championships in September 2021. Her effort is second only to the legendary Anju Bobby George’s national record of 6.83m.

Aishwarya bettered the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard of 6.50m that has been set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). She also bettered the meet record of 6.63m, which was set by Mayookha Johny in 2011.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor of Punjab expectedly took the gold medal in men’s shot put with an effort of 20.34m in his final round throw, which was 16cm short of the CWG qualifying distance of 20.50m set by the AFI.

Annu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) won the women’s javelin throw event by clearing 60.97m, which was above the CWG standard of 59.50m.