KOCHI: The final day of the inter-state athletics championship underway in Patiala belonged to veteran discus thrower Seema Punia who booked her place in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics with a throw of 63.72m on Tuesday.
The Asian Games gold medallist secured direct qualification as the Olympic qualification mark is 63.50m. It will be the 37-year-old’s fourth Olympics and she will be representing India alongside Kamalpreet Kaur in the discus throw event. Kamalpreet had booked Tokyo ticket back in March.
Meanwhile, the men’s 4x400m team bagged gold in the final, even though their timing of 3:05.22s was well behind what they managed in the heats where they posted a timing of 3:01.89s. Sitting comfortably in 13th position in the World Athletics’ Road to Tokyo rankings, they look on course to board the flight for Tokyo next month.
As far as the 4x400m women’s team are concerned, they find themselves precariously placed. Even though the team bagged gold on the last day of the inter-state championship, they are currently placed 16th in the rankings and are uncomfortably placed with Tuesday being the qualification deadline.
As for the 4x100m women’s relay team, they were competing without star sprinter Hima Das. They still managed to bring home the gold with a timing of 44.15s ahead of the Sri Lankan team . But that was not enough to take them to the Games and their dreams are all but over.
Meanwhile, there was somewhat of an upset in the javelin throw event with Rohit Yadav upstaging Tokyo-bound Shivpal Singh. Rohit threw a distance of 77.74m with Shivpal only managing 77.31m. The 20-year-old had also won gold in the IGP-4 which was held a few days earlier.
The Olympic dreams of Punjab’s Harmilan Bains also came to an end as she couldn’t meet the Olympic qualification time in the 1500m run. The 23-year-old bagged gold in the event with a timing of 4:15.52s but it was well short of the qualification mark which is 4:04.20s. Harmilan was even well short of her own personal best of 4:08.70s which she had achieved in the IGP-4. In the 3000m steeplechase, Haryana’s Shankar Lal won gold with a timing of 8:46.36. Second-placed Vikram Singh clocked 9:15.53 which underlined Shankar’s dominance in the race.