KOCHI: The 28th National Federation Senior Athletic Championship kicked off in Kochi with two meet records and a handful of personal best performances. Army’s long distance runner Sawan Barwal touched the finish line in 28:57:13 seconds in men’s 10,000m, breaching the 18-year-old meet record of 28:57:90 set by Surender Singh in 2007.
“I could have done better in the race, but there was no-one to challenge me,” he said, as the runner-up Abhishek Pal of Railways finished 36s behind. Both have attained the qualifying standards for the Asian Championship to be held in Gumi, South Korea.
Drama unfolded in the 100m men’s race where Pranav Pramod of Railways clinched gold with a personal best of 10.27s while national record holder, Gurindervir Singh of Punjab, finished last with a timing of 11.21s. Manikanta Hoblidhar of Karnataka, after clocking a meet record of 10.25s in the heats, finished third with a timing of 10.35s. Animesh Kujur won silver with a timing of 10.32s. The qualifying standard for Asian Championships in men's 100m is 10.25s. Gurindervir is the fastest man in India after smashing the national record with a timing of 10.20s in Indian GP-I in Bengaluru this year.
Telangana’s Nithya Gandhe became the fastest woman in the meet finishing 100m in 11.50 seconds.
In the women's 10,000m final, Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav won gold with a time of 33:44:43s. Yoonus Shah of JSW won gold in men’s 1500m (3:41:93s), also attaining qualifying mark for the Asian meet. The gold and silver medalists of women’s 1500m, Lili Das of Uttarakhand and Pooja of Haryana crossed the Asian qualification time of 4:15:00s. In women’s pole vault, Pavithra Venkatesh of Tamil Nadu won gold.
High five for Sachin
Seven out of eighteen participants in the men's 800g javelin crossed the Asian championship qualification mark of 75.36 seconds on the first day. Rising star Sachin Yadav of Uttar Pradesh, also the winner of the National Games, won gold, covering a distance of 83.86m in his fifth attempt. The conditions were just right for the 25-year-old to cross 80m thrice in six attempts. His best throw had come during the Police Championship, where he threw the javelin at 84.21m. “I was hoping to cross 85.50m to achieve the World Athletics Championship qualification mark, but missed it. I will try again for that,” he said. Yashvir Singh of Railways with a distance of 80.85m was second and Sahil Silwal of Reliance managed 77.84m for bronze.
All eyes were on Kishore Kumar Jena, Olympian and a silver medallist at the Asian Games, but he disappointed yet again. He has been struggling since last year and is making a comeback after injury. He finished fourth clearing 77.15m in his second attempt. Three of his six throws were fouls.
Day 2 of the Federation Cup Athletics Championship will witness ten finals. Quartermilers Manu TS of Kerala and Rupal Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh were the fastest in the semifinals held on Monday. Finals of 800m, men's pole vault men, discus throw (both categories), men's high jump and long jump men will take place on Day 2.