Bhubaneswar, Aug 10: 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 as far as Kujur is concerned. 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 another 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 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 Sreeshankar 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.
Khan became the latest entrant to the 8m club in the Indian men’s long jump. His earlier best was 7.90m.
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.
Rani, representing Uttar Pradesh, had another 60m-plus throw — a 61.01m in her fifth attempt — as she continued her good form.
Before Sunday, the 32-year-old was on 30th spot in the Road to Tokyo list after her season’s best of 62.59m in Poland on August 6. Thirty-six athletes are to compete in the women’s javelin throw event in Tokyo. She is yet to breach the automatic qualification mark of 64m.
On Wednesday, she registered her first 60m-plus throw in more than a year as she won the javelin competition title at the 8th International Wieslaw Maniak Memorial meet in Szczecin, Poland. Her national record stands at 63.82m, which she achieved in 2022.
The men’s javelin event disappointed the crowd at the Kalinga Stadium as the Indian participants barely crossed the 80m mark.
Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage, who finished third in the NC Classic hosted by Neeraj Chopra on July 5 in Bengaluru, took the men’s javelin gold with his first round throw 86.50m, thereby breaching the World Championships direct entry mark of 85.50m.
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.
Another Sri Lankan Sumedha Ranasinghe — who has already secured a direct spot in World Athletics Championships — was third with 80.65m, while India’s Rohit Yadav (80.35m) and Asian Championships silver winner Sachin Yadav (79.80m) were fourth and fifth respectively.
Shaili Singh won the women’s long jump event with a below-par effort of 6.28m The Indian men’s 4x400m relay team disappointed with a second place finish to Sri Lanka (3:08.22) with a time of 3 minute 08.37 seconds. The Indian quartet comprised T Santhosh Kumar, Vishal TK, Amoj Jacob and Dharamveer Choudhary.
Malaysia’s Muhammad Azeem Bin emerged as the fastest man of the meet as he won the 100m dash in 10.35 seconds.
Abinaya Rajarajan, representing NCoE Trivandrum, won the women’s 100m final with a time of 11.57 seconds.
The one-day competition, carrying a prize purse of USD 25,000, saw over 150 athletes from 17 countries competing in 19 events. Out of the total athletes, more than 90 are from India while the rest are from abroad.
Among the foreign countries, Nepal has sent the largest number of athletes at 13, followed by Sri Lanka (10) and Malaysia (9). South Africa and Great Britain have sent four athletes each.
The Indians taking part in various events were picked from their best performance of the season till July 12. Those Indians who are in the top-7 rankings were considered for participation.
Since it’s an invitational competition, the Indian participants represented their respective departments, employers, private entities or even their states like NCOE Bangalore, NCOE Traivandrum, Army, Air Foce, Reliance, JSW, etc. in individual events.
The organisers had earlier planned to include the women’s 4x400m relay race as well as the mixed 4x400m relay but both the events were scrapped due to lack of participation — minimum three — from other countries. (PTI)
