KOCHI: Among the notable Indian track and field athletes who are yet to take to the track this season, Muhammed Anas Yahiya is among the most high-profile names.
Anas is believed to be taking his time to regain fitness after the men's relay team's exploits at the Tokyo Olympics, and in the 27-year-old's absence, his national record in 200m run got re-written on the final day of the Federation Cup by rising star Amlan Borgohain.
The Assamese sprinter is making his presence felt in the 100m and 200m events in recent years and it would be an exciting proposition when Anas and Amlan come face-to-face.
After his gold-winning effort at the National Open Athletics Championships which made everyone sit up and take notice, Amlan's latest exploits show the strides he is making.
On Wednesday, he produced a record-breaking time of 20.52s to rewrite Anas' record of 20.63s which was set at a meet in the Czech Republic back in 2018. At the recently concluded Indian Grand Prix 1, Amlan won gold with a time of 20.94s.
Despite heavy rains disrupting the final day of the meet at the CH Muhammed Koya Stadium in Calicut, there were some impressive performances on show.
Despite the challenging conditions, triple jumper Eldhose Paul produced yet another stellar show, as he improved on his personal best with a jump of 16.99m.
At the Indian Grand Prix 2 held last month, Eldhose had produced a jump of 16.95m as the Kerala athlete’ keeps on improving upon his performances. Despite missing out on the 17m mark by a whisker,
Eldhose's latest effort is the third-best by an Indian behind Renjith Maheswary (17.30m) and Arpinder Singh (17.17m). Eldhose now has two out of the top five jumps by Indians in the triple jump event as his stocks continue to rise. It is also a new meet record as he bettered Maheshwary's 16.85m effort which was set way back in 2002.
"The conditions were really challenging because of the rain interruptions. There were a lot of disruptions because of that and it affected everything from warm-up to the jumps. But these are uncontrollables, and all I could do was just focus on improving my personal best which I managed, and I'm happy. Of course, jumping over the 17m mark would have been great but with the conditions, it was always going to be a challenge," said Eldhose who bagged gold ahead of Tamil Nadu's Praveen Chitravel who produced an effort of 16.84m.
As for the 200m event, sprint star Hima Das came out on top as she fought off stiff competition from Aishwarya Mishra in what was a photo-finish. Hima clocked 23.63s with Aishwarya finishing second just a fraction behind with a time of 23.64s. Aishwarya went on to bag gold in the 400m event with a time of 51.18s which is the fifth-best time by an Indian woman and also a meet record.
As for serial record-breaker Avinash Sable, the 27-year-old who skipped the 3000m steeplechase event at the Fed Cup, created a new meet record in the 5000m run with a time of 13:39.43s as he chalked off G Lakshmanan's record (13:47.28s) while MP Jabir triumphed in the 400m hurdles with Dharun Ayyasamy finishing fourth as the championship drew to a close.