UP’s Saroj wrests 1500m gold in style
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh’s Ajay Kumar Saroj proved his supremacy at the 57th National InterState Athletics Championship, winning men’s 1500m gold in style, at the Acharya Nagarjuna University ground in Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) on Tuesday.
The 20-year old Saroj has already qualified for the World Championships, thanks to his gold medal winning performance at the Asian Championships last month, clocked 3:45.88 on Tuesday. He was followed by Kerala’s Jinson Johnson (3:46.30) and Haryana’s Manjit Singh (3:49.30).
But the day’s biggest surprise came from Siddhanth Thingalaya, who created a new meet record to win the men’s 110m hurdles in 13.76s. The 26- year old from Maharashtra appears to be in blistering form this season, having already smashed the national record and now eclipsing his own meet record with this victory. Tamil Nadu’s Suresh (14.41s) was in second place while Debarjan Murmu (14.64s) of West Bengal finished third.
In overall team rankings, Kerala finished on top in the table with maximum 159 points at the end of the four-day event, followed by Tamil Nadu (110) on second position and Haryana (101) on third.
West Bengal’s Lili Das claimed another medal by winning the women’s 1500m event in 4:28.00. The youngster has previously bagged the 800m gold. Kerala’s PU Chitra (4:28.87) and Pramila Yadav (4:29.33) of UP were second and third, respectively.
Bhupinder Singh of UP clinched the men’s hammer throw event gold medal with a 64.81m effort. Andhra’s Neeraj Kumar, who holds the current national record, had to settle for silver with a 64.73m throw. Sukhdev Singh (61.41m) of Haryana was adjudged third.
Uttarakhand’s Pradeep Singh Choudhary won the men’s 10k run with a timing of 30:19.36. The Maharashtrian duo of Ranjeet Kumar Patel (30:30.59) and Kalidas Hirave (30:37.94) were in second and third place, respectively.
The men’s triple jump gold medal went to Arpinder Singh of Haryana with a 16.34m jump, though he could not improve upon his 2014 meet record. Kerala’s Abdulla Aboobacker (16.30m) and Sanal Scaria (15.79m) were also on the podium.
Anu R (400m, Kerala) finished the championships as the best women athlete with 1105 points, while Davinder Singh Kang (javelin throw, Punjab) was the top athlete among men with 1127 points.