Toor betters shot put national record, still short of Olympic mark

NEW DELHI: Punjab’s Tejinderpal Singh Toor etched his name in the record books by improving his national record in shot put to 20.92 metres at the 59th Open National Athletics Championships at Ranchi on Saturday. Toor’s previous best of 20.75 metres was the gold-winning throw at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. The Tokyo Olympic qualification mark in men’s shot put is 21.10 metres.

A day after Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand set the national record in women’s 100m, clocking 11.22 seconds, Toor became the second athlete to raise the level of his performance in the season-ending competition. The burly thrower from Punjab had struggled for form earlier this month at the World Championships in Doha where he finished overall 18th out of 34 competitors with a throw of 20.43 metres.

“There was lot of pressure to perform at Doha. Hence I wasn’t able to give off my best,” he said.

Today, Toor started with a throw of 20.41 but surpassed his previous best in the third attempt. On his record-breaking performance, he said, “It was good day. I got into the rhythm and there was no pressure to perform.” Toor’s next stop is the World Military Games starting October 18 in Wuhan, China.

COACH STIMAC NAMES 23-MEMBER SQUAD GUWAHATI: Head coach Igor Stimac named a 23-member Indian football squad for the FIFA World Cup qualifier against Bangladesh to be played in Kolkata on Tuesday. Defenders Sandesh Jhingan and Anwar Ali (Jr) were ruled out the match to be played at VYBK Stadium due to injuries, while Halicharan Narzary, Farukh Choudhary and Nishu Kumar did not make it to the final 23.