Seema attains CWG standard

Veteran discus thrower Seema Punia set a new meet record on the opening day of the Run Adam Federation Cup on Monday to meet the qualifying guideline for the Commonwealth Games.

The 34-year-old Punia, who was competing in her first event of the year, flung the iron disc to 61.05 metres in her final attempt, which was her best in two years. She broke the old mark of 60.95m set by Neelam J Singh back in 2002.

The throw was better than the Athletics Federation of India's qualifying guideline of 59m, earning Punia a chance to improve on her silver medal show at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The throw was a massive improvement for Punia. She had had a dismal last year, managing a best effort of 54.14m in December.

Behind Punia was Navjeet Kaur, who recorded a best throw of 57.75m. The performance of the day though came from pole vaulter S Siva who shattered his own national record by clearing 5.15m. That effort bettered the mark of 5.14m he set in the Federation Cup last year at the same venue.

Falling just short

Siva, a havildar in the Indian army, fell short of the Commonwealth Games guideline of 5:45m.

Siva's performance capped a string of strong performances by the top athletes on the day. G Lakshmanan eclipsed the meet mark in the men's 5000m, clocking 13:47:28 to erase the old record of 13:49:17 set by Kheta Ram in Patiala in 2014. The CWG guideline is 13:25:00.

In the women's 400M heats, Anilda Thomas did not start while Anu Raghavan failed to qualify. M R Poovamma advanced, timing 53.73 seconds, along with Hima Das (53.21) and Jauna Murmu (53.61).

Results: Men: 5000M: G Lakshmanan (Tamil Nadu) 13:47.28, 1; Suresh Kumar (Uttarakhand) 13:49.51, 2; Gavit Murali (Gujarat) 14:03.04, 3.

Pole vault: Siva S (Tamil Nadu) 5.15 metres (National record. Old: 5.14, Siva 2017), 1; Anuj (Haryana) 5.10, 2; Kundan Singh (Haryana) 5.00, 3.

Women: 5000M: L Suriya (Tamil Nadu) 15:46.96, 1; Swati Gadhave (Maharashtra) 16:07.63, 2; Aarti Patil (Maharashtra) 16:27.39, 3.

High jump: Jyoti (Haryana) 1.76 metres and Angel P Devasia (Kerala) 1.76, 1; Jinu Maria Manuel (Kerala) 1.76, 3.

Discus: Seema Punia (Uttar Pradesh) 61.05 metres, 1; Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (Punjab) 57.75, 2; Kirandeep Kaur (Punjab) 46.08, 3.

Hammer throw: Sarita Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 63.80 metres, 1; Gunjan Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 56.50, 2; Sarbjeet Kaur (Punjab) 55.65, 3.