Women athletes smash three meet records at National Inter State

Guntur, Andhra Pradesh: L Surya, Anu Raghavan and Sarita Singh all created Meet Records on the opening day of the National Inter State Athletics Championships at Acharya Nagarjuna University ground in Guntur- Andhra Pradesh on Saturday

Surya set a new Meet Record in the Women’s 5000m run, racing ahead with a time of 15:46.92. She was followed by Sanjivani Babur Jadhav (16:35.64), representing AFI, and Preenu Yadav (16:56.60) of Delhi. Surya, hailing from a small village in Pudukottai, Tamil Nadu, broke the existing Meet Record of OP Jaisha (15:57.05) which stood for three years.

Lakshmanan doubled the joy for Tamil Nadu with his victory in the Men’s 5000m event, clocking a 14:07.76 finish. Uttarakhand’s Man Singh (14:20.50) and Kalidas Hirave (14:24.91) of Maharashtra were in second and third position, respectively. The 27-year old Lakshmanan, who bagged a gold medal at the recently concluded Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, has already qualified for the World Championships which will be held in London next month.

In the Evening session, Anu Raghavan of Kerala broke the Meet Record in Women’s 400m Hurdles with a new personal best of 57.21. Jauna Murmu of Odisha (58.68) and Gujarat’s Sarita Gaikwad (1:00.27) also secured a podium finish. Raghavan, who secured a silver medal at the Asian Championships, improved upon AC Ashwini’s Meet Record of 57.43.

The Men’s 400m Hurdles saw local favourites, Jabir MP (50.33) and M. Ramachandran (51.17) of Andhra, clinching the top two positions. Tamil Nadu’s Santosh Kumar (51.40) came in third place.

Sarita Singh, who set a new National Record at the Federation Cup last month, also created a new Meet Record in Women’s Hammer Throw with a best throw of 63.22m. She eclipsed the existing Meet Record of Manju Bala on her fourth attempt. Fellow athlete from Uttar Pradesh, Gunjan Singh (59.34m), came second while Punjab’s Sarabjeet Kaur (53.96m) was adjudged third best.

Star performer Manpreet Kaur did not disappoint, picking up gold for Haryana in Women’s Shot Put with a 15.65m effort. The Asian champion finished well ahead of UP’s Anamika Das (14.42m) and Punjab’s Ramanpreet Kaur (14.25m).