The Railways continued their winning streak even as Babu Bhai of Services set up a new meet record in the men’s 2000-metre walk on the second day of the 47th National Open Athletic championship at JRD Tata sports complex on Wednesday.

Railways dominated the proceedings on the second day winning seven gold, seven silver and nine bronze medals to top the medal chart. Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) wtih four gold and three silver are on the second position in the medal tally.

Sprinter Sameer Mon clocked 10.53 seconds to win the men’s 100 metre race, pushing behind Jagdish Basak (AIPSCB) 10.57 and Vilas Nilgund (Railways) 10.59 to the second and third place respectivelly.
“This is my best major national title and I won the medal in tough competition,” said Sameer, a SAF gold medalist in the 4x100 meter relay in Colombo.

In the women’s 100m, N Sharda of Railways clinched the gold, clocking 11.83 seconds followed by team-mates Poonam Tomar 12.03 and Nidhi 12.03 respectivelly.

“I am really elated to beat former champion Poonam Tomar, Sharda, who had a previous best of 11.90 seconds,” she said.

The day saw a new meet record created by Olympic qualifier Babu Bhai of SSCB in the men’s 2000 metre walk, who clocked 1:23.40 seconds shattering the previous best of 1:25.48 seconds established by C S Rathi at Delhi in 1990.

Babu Bhai's team-mate P S Jalan bagged silver with a timing of 1:27:10 seconds, while Harvinder Singh (Maharashtra) had to content with the bronze with a timing of 1:27:10.