Karnataka’s Vijayakumari (left) clinched gold in the 400m race while Animesh Kujur topped the podium in the 200m event at the World Athletics Continental Tour competition in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
PTI
Star sprinter Animesh Kujur, veteran javelin thrower Annu Rani, and long jump ace Murali Sreeshankar lived up to expectations by winning their respective events at India’s maiden World Athletics Continental Tour competition here on Sunday.
The bronze level event went off smoothly but the quality of competitions did not rise to any great heights.
There was drama in store for Kujur. The 22-year-old pulled up after a few paces in his men’s 100m heat race in the morning. He then came out to run his 200m heat half an hour later and qualified for the final with a time of 20.99 seconds. In the evening, he ran 20.77 seconds in the 200m final to win the gold.
Ko Seunghwan of Korea (20.95 seconds) and Indian Ragul Kumar (21.17 seconds) were second and third respectively. Kujur, representing Odisha, holds national records in both 100m (10.18 seconds) and 200m (20.32 seconds).
Sreeshankar, representing JSW, was up against rising teenager Shahnavaz Khan, who won gold in the Uttarakhand National Games in February. The 17-year-old Khan was leading with his fourth round jump of 8.04m, while Sreeshankar was second with 7.95m. But the 26-year-old produced 8.13m in his final attempt to take the gold in dramatic fashion for his fourth title in a row since coming back from a long injury lay-off. He is, however, yet to breach the Tokyo World Championships direct entry mark of 8.27m.
In women’s javelin, Asian Games champion Annu Rani bagged the gold with a fourth round throw of 62.01m, thereby strengthening her chances of making it to the Tokyo World Championships in September.
The men’s javelin event disappointed the crowd at the Kalinga Stadium as the Indian participants barely crossed the 80m mark. India’s 20-year-old Shivam Lohakare, the latest entrant in the 80m club at the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Pune last month with 80.95m, took the silver with 80.73m.
Karnataka’s quarter-miler Vijayakumari GK struck gold in the women’s 400m race with a timing of 53.40 seconds ahead of Devyaniba Mahendras (53.87s) and Great Britain’s Louise Evans (54.28s), who won silver and bronze respectively.