Karnataka’s Sneha SS (left, women’s 100m bronze) and Manikanta Hoblidar (men’s 100m silver) show off their spoils on the opening day of the National Inter-State meet. Karnataka’s Shivaji Parashu (top right) won silver in the men’s 10000m earlier in the day in Chennai. Tamil Nadu’s Tamil Arasu clinched the men’s 100m gold.
Karnataka opened their account in the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships with three medals on the opening day at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday.
Karnataka’s leading sprinter Manikanta Hoblidar clocked 10.35 seconds in the men’s 100m dash to clinch the silver medal behind Tamil Nadu’s Tamil Arasu (10.22), who smashed the national meet record. None, however, could make the cut-off mark of 10.00 set for the qualification for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month.
The five-day domestic event is the last chance for Indian athletes to qualify for the Worlds, whose cut-off date is August 24.
The women’s sprint saw Karnataka’s Sneha SS claim the bronze medal with a timing of 11.61s behind the Tamil Nadu duo of S Dhanalakshmi (11.36) and Abinaya R (11.58). Earlier, another state girl, Dhaneshwari T, couldn’t go beyond the semifinal heat as she clocked 11.96. The cut-off mark for Worlds for the event was set at 11.07.
In the men’s 10000m, Shivaji Parashu Madappagoudra opened the state’s account early in the day as he won the silver medal behind UP’s Abhishek (30:56.64). Competing in the event for the first time, the 2023 Asian U-20 Championships silver medallist clocked a 30:57.69. The effort, however, was well short of the qualification mark of 27:00.00.
In the women’s 400m, veteran MR Poovamma clocked 54.52 seconds in the semifinal heat and qualified for the final, while Continental Tour gold medallist GK Vijayakumari pulled out of the race due to a heel injury sustained during practice.
Seema posts NMR
Meanwhile, Seema posted the new meet record in the women’s 5000m with a timing of 15:42.64 to clinch the gold medal. The timing was short of the direct qualifying mark of 14:50.00. However, an alternate route of qualification is through the world ranking quota, which takes into account the three best performances of the season.
With 42 berths to fill in total for the event, Seema’s latest race was her third best timing of the season and is expected to improve her rankings. At the time of writing this report, the World Rankings were yet to be updated.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu’s Reegan G set a new meet record in the men’s pole vault with an attempt of 5.20m, obliterating S Siva’s 5.11 from 2023. His state-mate M Gowtham also matched the effort to take silver.
Results:
Men: 100m: Tamil Arasu (TN) 10.22s (NMR; Old: 10.27s, Gurindrvir Singh), 1; Manikanta Hoblidar (Kar) 10.35, 2; Ragul Kumar (TN) 10.40, 3.
10000m: Abhishek (UP) 30:56.64, 1; Shivaji Parashu (Kar) 30:57.69, 2; Shivam (UP) 30:59.14, 3.
Pole vault: Reegan G (TN) 5.20m (NMR; Old: 5.11, S Siva, 2023) 1; M Gowtham (TN) 5.20, 2; Kamal Loganathan (TN) 5.00, 3.
Women: 100m: S Dhanalakshmi (TN) 11.36s, 1; Abinaya R (TN) 11.58, SS Sneha (Kar) 11.61, 3.
5000m: Seema (HP) 15:42.64 (NMR; Old: 15:46.92, Suriya Guntur, 2017) 1; Ravina Gayakwad (Mah) 16:53.24, Sanghamitra Mahata (Jha) 18:04.36, 3.
Triple jump: Sandra Babu (Ker) 13.20m, 1; Aleena Saji (Ker) 13.15, 2; Niharika Vashisht (Pun) 13.09, 3.
Hammer throw: Tanya Chaudhary (UP) 63.91m, 1; Divya Shandilya (Odi) 59.58, 2; Maya (Raj) 57.57, 3.