Annu Rani re-writes national record

Javelin thrower Annu Rani rewrote her own national record and qualified for both the Asian and World Championships on the third and penultimate day of the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships here on Sunday.

The 26-year-old Rani, who represented Uttar Pradesh, hurled the spear to a distance of 62.34m, nearly half a metre more than her earlier national record of 61.86m that she recorded in 2017. Her effort bettered the qualifying standard of 61.50m for the World Championships to be held in Doha in September-October later this year.

She also qualified for the Asian Championships, also to be held in Doha next month, for which the qualifying standard of 58m was set by the Athletics Federation of India.

Haryana’s Kumari Sharmila (54.98) won the silver while Rupinder Kaur of Punjab was third with an effort of 53.90M.

Iavit Murali Kumar, an Adivasi athlete who worked as a part-time labourer in road construction in Dang district of Gujarat, won the men’s 10000m race to qualify for the Asian Championships.

Murali, who had won the men’s 5000m race on the first day of the event, crossed the finish line in 29.21.99 to win his second gold of the meet, bettering the Asian Championships qualification mark of 29 minutes 50 seconds.

Four other runners also crossed the Asian Championships qualification standard in men’s 10,000m race besides Murali but only two out of five can take part in the continental meet in Doha next month.

Uttar Pradesh’s Abhishek Pal was second with a time of 29.22.37 and the bronze went to Kalidas Hirave of Maharashtra who clocked 29.25.16. Defending champion G Lakshmanan of Tamil Nadu was fourth clocking 29.26.41 and Vasudev Nishad of UP came fifth with a timing of 29.31.42.

While she didn’t manage to meet the AFI guidelines, Kerala’s Krishna Rachan set a new meet record in the women’s pole vault competition.

The 25-year-old improved on V Surekha’s five-year-old meet record of 4.05m by clearing a height of 4.06m. The jump was also a new personal best for Rachan, who had a previous best of 3.95m recorded in Bhubaneswar in 2018.

Haryana’s clinched the gold in women’s triple jump with a best effort of 13.48m ahead of Punjab’s Niharika Vashisht who had a best jump of 13.05m and Sheena NV who had a best effort of 13.04m.