New Delhi, April 11: Star sprinter Animesh Kujur of Odisha won the 100m dash in a photo finish after earlier clinching the 200m title, running away with the spotlight at the one-day Indian Athletics Series here on Saturday.
Opening his outdoor season on the ‘fast’ Mondo track, Kujur won the 200m race in the morning session with a time of 20.74 seconds, beating 400m national record holder Vishal T who ran 21.01 seconds. Vishal was representing NCOE Trivandrum.
Dharamveer Choudhary of Rajasthan clocked the third best time of 21.03 seconds. More than 50 athletes competed in the men’s 200m race.
The 22-year-old Kujur was, however, pushed to the limit by Tamil Arasu of Railways in the 100m dash as both were initially given identical time of 10.28 seconds. Later, the photo finish was decided in favour of Kujur, who clocked 10.272 seconds compared to Tamil Arasu’s 10.280 seconds.
Gurvindervir Singh, who won the 60m gold in the National Indoor Championships last month in Bhubaneswar where Kujur was disqualified for a false start, finished third with a time of 10.40 seconds.
“It (the race) got pretty close, but it’s okay. This was the season opener (in outdoors), my first race. And I am happy with the timing,” Kujur said later.
The women’s 200m also saw mediocre show with Priyanka Sikarwar of All India Police finishing on top with a time of 23.91 seconds while Unnathi Bollanda of Karnataka was second with 24.12 seconds. Mohd Atta Sazid of Haryana won the men’s long jump event with a distance of 7.86m.
Karnataka’s Shailesh Kushwaha emerged winner in the men’s 10000m race in a time of 30:01.08. Uttarakhand’s Anu Kumar emerged on top in the men’s 800m race in a time of 1:49.87. The men’s 110m hurdles was won by Muhammed Lazan of JSW Sports in a time of 14.23 seconds. C Anjali of JSW Sports finished on top in women’s 100m hurdles in a time of 13.58 seconds. Tanya Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh took the women’s hammer throw with an effort of 61.29m. (PTI)
