THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala added two more gold medals from the track and field events of the 35th National Games at the University Stadium here on Wednesday to fuel their push for a second spot in the overall medals tally.
Though V Santhini won a surprise silver for the state in women’s 100 metre, Kerala had to wait for later to win their first gold of the day from the jumping pit where Neena V produced a personal best performance of 6.39 metres to successfully negotiate the challenge of teammate M A Prajusha.
With Neena producing her best in her very first attempt, Prajusha always had an uphill task and unfortunately, appeared not to be in the best of form, mustering up only a distance of 6.25 metres in her final attempt.
In the women’s 400 metres, Kerala duo Anilda Thomas and Anu Raghavan produced a one-two finish while Anu Mariam Jose had to settle for fourth.
Services’ Arokia Rajeev comfortably took the gold in men’s event clocking a tiem of 46.40 secs ahead of Lalith Mathur of Haryana and West Bengal’s Chandan Bauri.
Though, it was Kerala-born V S Surekha, representing Tamil Nadu, who was the best performer of the day, bettering her own meet record in women’s pole vault by clearing a height of 4 metres. However, cheered on by the spectators, the 30-year-old failed in her attempt to better her national mark. Kerala’s Dija K C bagged the silver clearing 3.6 metres while Sinju Prakash took the bronze medal.