7 UP athletes qualify for Asiad, CWG 2022
Six of them made it to the grade of the twin event at Fed Cup; Parul achieved mark at Grand Prix last month at Patiala
LUCKNOW: The 25th AFI National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships at Kozhikode on Wednesday, turned out to be a big opportunity for the athletes from Uttar Pradesh as they not only finished with a rich haul of 16 medals, including eight gold medals, but seven of them achieved the qualifying marks for this year’s Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
On the very first day of the event, Ajai Saroj qualified in the men’s 1500m event, whereas Olympians Annu Rani in javelin, Seema Antil in discus, Kartik Kumar and Abhishek Pal in 5000m and Sarita Romit Singh in hammer also made it to the grade. Ace steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary has already qualified for the Asian Games in 300m steeplechase, whereas in coming events, Tokyo Olympics race walker Priyanka Goswami and few others too are expected to make the cut.
“It’s a great show by the UP athletes and I am expecting ore to qualify for the Asian Games as well as for the Commonwealth Games,” UP Athletics Association’s secretary, PK Srivastava said on Wednesday as UP athletes won one gold, two silver and two bronzes at Kozhikode.
“UP has been a force to reckon with in athletics and our athletes have been part of the Indian squads at all the top international meets, including Olympics for the last many years,” said Srivastava, adding, “I am sure that this time our athletes will bring many medals at home.”
Baghpat’s Akash Kumar started the final day of the fourday championship with a silver medal. He clocked 20.89 sec to finish second in the men’s 200m event in which Assam’s Amlan Borgohain took 20.52 seconds to create new national and meet records, erasing the previous mark of 20.63 set up by Muhammed Anas Yahiya in August 2018. Kerala’s Muhammed Ajmal (20.92) finished third.
On a rain hit day final day at the CH Muhammed Koya Stadium on Wednesday, Avinash Sable, known to break national records in the steeplechase, also rewrote the men’s 5000m meet record with a fine effort over 13:39.43 that raised expectation that he could soon be claiming the national record standing in the name of Bahadur Prasad since June 27, 1992. Kartik Kumar’s bid for the distance double came unstuck in the face of Sable’s run. The top three finishers, including Uttar Pradesh’s Abhishek Pal met the Asian Games qualification criteria set by AFI.
The two 31-year-old hammer throwers, Sarita Romit Singh (Uttar Pradesh) and Manju Bala Singh (Rajasthan) produced a riveting contest. Having tra ded the national record over the last so many years, they fought tooth and nail on Wednesday.
Manju Bala Singh led with 63.12m on her third try but Sarita Romit Singh won gold with 64.16m on her fifth attempt. Manju Bala Singh also came up with a 64m throw on her last try but had to settle for silver. They pushed one another so competitively that it was the first time that both breached the 64m in the same competition. They also earned qualification marks for the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.
Having qualified for both the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, Meerut’s Parul Chaudhary finished UP’s campaign in the meet with a gold in the women’s 5000m, clocking 15.39.77 sec. She was followed by Seema (Himachal Pradesh) and Sanjivani Babur Jadhav (Maharashtra).