Five Odisha athletes qualify for open nationals

The athletes are Swadhin Majhi, Kishore Kumar Jena, Ashok Dandasena, Bignaraj Miridia and Sasmita Tioga.
The 60th National Open Athletics Championship 2021 is scheduled to be held in Warangal, Telangana from September 15 to 19. (Representational Image)
The 60th National Open Athletics Championship 2021 is scheduled to be held in Warangal, Telangana from September 15 to 19. (Representational Image)

BHUBANESWAR: Six new records were created while five athletes qualified for the national championship during the 68th Odisha State Senior Athletics Championship which concluded here at Kalinga Stadium on Wednesday. 

The 60th National Open Athletics Championship 2021 is scheduled to be held in Warangal, Telangana from September 15 to 19.

More than 400 athletes participated in 34 track and field events at the two-day meet, which was jointly organised by the Sports and Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha, KIIT University and Odisha Athletics Association.

The athletes, who qualified for the nationals by breaching the qualifying marks set by the Athletics Federation of India, are Swadhin Majhi, Kishore Kumar Jena, Ashok Dandasena, Bignaraj Miridia and Sasmita Tioga.

In men's high jump, Majhi of Cuttack cleared 2.07m to break the previous record of 2.06m set by Sunil Kumar Azad in 1996. Cuttack's Jena broke his own state record by throwing javelin to the distance of 76.41m. His previous best was 72.77m set in 2017 in Cuttack.

Dandasena of Odisha Police created a meet record in 1500m clocking 3 minutes 58.7 seconds. The previous record was 3 minutes 59.3 seconds.

Miridia, who is also from the Odisha Police, qualified by setting a meet record in 400m semifinals with the timing of 48.26 seconds bettering the previous best of 48.31sec. Tioga also created a meet record in women's 3000m steeplechase clocking 12 minutes and 01.76 seconds. The previous record was of 12 minutes and 11.8 seconds.

Meanwhile, Kiro from Bhubaneswar created a meet record in men's 400m Hurdles clocking 53.95 sec in the first heat. The previous record was of 54.1 seconds.

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