Akkunji strikes gold on return
NATIONAL ATHLETICS Two new meet records set up in men’s javelin on day two of the prestigious meet
On a day when two meet records were set in men’s javelin at the 56th National Open Athletics Championship, Ashwini Akkunji announced her return to 400m in style, winning gold here.
Railways’ Ravinder Singh hurled the javelin to 79.04m in his sixth and last attempt, whereas Shivpal of Services touched 77.72m in his third attempt. Both smashed the meet record of 77.67m, set by Neeraj Chopra last year. Chopra is the current under-20 world champion.
Before winning silver at this year’s inter-state meet at Hyderabad with 78.11m, the 30-year-old Ravindra had 78.02m in an event in 2014 here. “I was doing 82-plus in training before the 2014 Commonwealth Games, but an injury wasted two years. It’s my comeback attempt and I was targeting 83-84m,” said Ravindra.
It was a good comeback for Akkunji in 400m as despite being a part of the Indian 4x400m relay squad, she didn’t run at the Rio Olympics, where the quartet of Nirmala, Tinku Luka, Raju Poovamma Machettira and Anilda Thomas bowed out in the heats.
“I was looking for an opportunity to start afresh and now I would be focusing on this,” Akkunji told HT after clocking 53.25 seconds to win gold. Santosh Kumari and Sarita Gayakwad won silver and bronze.
Gold medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the 4x400m relay, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay at the Asian Games at Guangzhou, Akkunji confessed she could have done better on Wednesday had she been challenged by her rivals.
“I could have missed the event like the other Rio-returned athletes, but I chose to make a point,” said Akkunji, whose personal best is 52.82s, which she set in Hyderabad in 2011.
“My next goal is the Asian Championship as this will give me experience in 400m before the 2018 Asian Games,” she said.