Long jumper Mayookha Johny was the lone athlete to meet the qualifying mark on the opening day of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships here on Thursday.

Mayookha won the gold with an effort of 6.56 metres, well ahead of the qualifying standard of 6.44 announced by the Athletics Federation of India on Wednesday night.The intense heat was a problem for the athletes despite the late evening start of the programme. 

Mayookha, who started off slowly, went past the mark in the third round.

“It is a satisfactory performance. The important thing is she qualified and also the fact that the effort was better than the gold medal winning performance of the last Commonwealth Games as well as the Asian Games,” said Mayookha’s coach G R Syam Kumar.

Canada’s Alice Falaiye had won the gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games with an effort of 6.50 metres while at the Asian Games, Jung Soon-Ok of South Korea topped the field with a 6.53M effort.

Mayookha had a series of 6.33, 6.32, 6.56, 6.37, 6.48 and 6.40. In the morning Punjab’s O P Jaisha erased Sunita Rani’s meet record in the 5000 metres, timing 15:57.05 against the old mark of 15:59.06, set in 1998.

Results: Men: 5000M: Indrajeet Patel (UP) 14:02.84, 1; Rahul Kumar Pal (Maharashtra) 14:06.72, 2; Nitender Singh (Uttarakhand) 14:09.54, 3.

Pole vault: Kundan (Haryana) 4.90 metres, 1; Krishna Prasad (Tamil Nadu) 4.70, 2; Bimin K P (Kerala) 4.70, 3.

Women: 5000M: O P Jaisha (Punjab) 15:57.05 (New Meet Record. Old: 15:59.06, Sunita Rani, 1998), 1; Suriya Loganathan (Tamil Nadu) 16:24.26, 2; Kavita Tungar (Maharashtra) 16:44.96, 3.

Shot Put: Manpreet Kaur (Punjab) 15.93 metres, 1; Manpreet Kaur (Punjab) 14.77, 2; Saraswathy (Tamil Nadu) 12.73, 3.

Long jump: Mayookha Johny (Kerala) 6.56 metres, 1; Neena V (Jharkhand) 6.23, 2; Shraddha Ghule (Maharashtra) 6.07, 3.