Karnataka's Purushotham wins India Open Jump Competition

Bengaluru: Karnataka's Purushotham improved on his personal best by considerable distance to claim the men's long jump title on Day 2 of the Indian Open Jump Competition at the Anju Bobby Sports Foundation here on Sunday.

In the women's long jump, young Lakshadweep girl Mubassina Mohammed continued to impress as the 20-year-old athlete dominated the field to her new personal best of 6.38 metres. 

Meanwhile in absence of top names like national record holder Jeswin Aldrin and M Sreeshankar, 24-year-old Purushotham grabbed the limelight late in the evening as the young man from Hassan leapt a 7.87m late off his fifth attempt to take the lead from Odisha's Suran Payasingh (7.78) and Tamil Nadu's S Saran (7.77) in a close battle to the gold medal.

"It took me almost three bad seasons following a ligament injury to improve my previous personal best (7.59)," said Purushotham, whose father is a painter in his hometown. "I am a civil engineer, who chose athletics over my engineering career and the last couple of years were worrying, that's why this result means the world to me."

Big names were missing from the women's jump final too as Asian Games silver medallist Ancy Sojan and World U-20 Championships runner-up Shaili Singh also sat out the event. 

It became Robert Bobby George-coached Mubassina's opportunity to shine as she took early lead with jumps of 6.28 and 6.29 before going past her previous best of 6.36 off her sixth and final attempt while competing at her home turf Anju Bobby Sports Foundation.

Purushotham Ham and Mubassina Mohammed won the men

"I am not too happy with the outcome as I was aiming for Asian Games qualification mark (6.48) and was doing well in training too," Mubassina told DH.

Dronacharya awardee Robert, however, was content with the outcome and felt her athlete could achieve the mark at the Indian Athletics Series 1 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on April 4.

Karnataka athletes grabbed further two medals on the day. Long jumper Sakshi Christina Kark took bronze medal with an effort of 5.26m in the women's U-28 behind Haryana's gold medallist Kashish (5.58).

The men's U-18 long jump saw Aaron S took bronze with an attempt of 6.89 behind NCOE Trivandrum's Rajeev Roy, who took gold at 7.45. 

Results: Men: Long jump: Purushotham (Kar) 7.87m, 1; Suran Payasingh (Odi) 7.78, 2; Saran S (TN) 7.77m, 3.

U-20: Long jump: Yuvaraj K (NCOT) 7.63, 1; Ayush Yadav (Del) 7.26, 2; Dhanush Raj (Ker) 7.06, 3. Pole vault: R Hariharan Ramesh (TN) 4.55, 1; Ajeet Kumar (Raj) 4.50, 2; Ashish Kr Yadav (MP) 4.40, 3.   

U-18: High jump: Devak Bhushan (Ker) 2.03, 1; Zubin Gohain (JSW) 1.95, 2; Virendra Ranaware (Mah) 1.85, 3. Long jump: Rajeev Roy (NCOT) 7.45, 1; Sagar Prajapati (UP) 7.07, 2; Aaron S (Kar) 6.89, 3.

Women: Long jump: Mubassina Mohammed (ABSF) 6.38, 1; Bhavani Yadav (6.27), 2; Kusuma Ravada (ABSF), 3. Pole vault: Baranica Elangovan (TN) 4.10, 1; Sindhushree (NCOB) 3.95, 2; Babita Patel (CISF) 3.90, 3. High jump: Pooja (JSW) 1.76, 1; Kevinaa Ashiwin Anna (Rai) 1.74, 2; Pallavi Patil (Rai) 1.71

U-20: High jump: Pooja (ABSF) 1.74, 1.

U-18: Long jump: Kashish (Har) 5.58, 1; M Jenista Shanu (TN) 5.47, 2; Sakshi Christina Kark (Kar) 5.26, 3.