Animesh Kujur pips Amlan Borgohain for 200m record gold

KOCHI: Odisha athlete Animesh Kujur not only pipped Amlan Borgohain to grab gold in the men’s 200m but also erased the latter’s name from the record books with an exceptional performance on the final day of the National Federation Senior Athletics here on Thursday. Kujur’s time of 20.40 bettered the mark of 20.52 set by Borgohain three years ago.

Borgohain, competing for Reliance, claimed silver with 20.80 seconds, while Tamil Nadu’s Ragul Kumar (20.85s) bagged bronze. One of the pre-race favourites, Karnataka’s Manikanta Hoblidhar, was content with a fourth-place finish.

Kujur had a good start, but Borgohain was ahead of him till the first bend. In the final 70m, Animesh snatched the lead from Borgohain and pulled away from his rival to stun his rival.

Although Kujur achieved the Asian Championships qualifying mark of 20.53 seconds, his effort was well below the World Championships qualifying time of 20.16 seconds. Kujur acknowledged his rival Borgohain’s contribution in helping him produce a record-breaking performance. “He’s (Borgohain) a 10.2 runner, so he gave me a tough fight. I put my everything into the race and had to literally chase him in the beginning. The bend is my favourite position and once I reached there, I got good pace and made it count,” said Kujur.

Chithravel equals record to seal Worlds berth

In the men’s triple jump, 23-year-old Praveen Chithravel equalled his own national record of 17.37m in his third attempt and secured his spot for the World Championships in Tokyo this year. Two Keralites, Abdulla Aboobacker representing Air Force and Mohammed Muhassin (JSW), finished second and third with jumps of 16.99m and 16.28m, respectively.

Chithravel said that he had hoped for a superior performance but also divulged that his training was hampered by an injury sustained last month. “I was under rehabilitation and did proper jump training only after reaching Kochi,” he stated.

Later, Shaili Singh erased a mark that had stood for over two decades. Making a remarkable comeback from injury, she leapt 6.64m to clear the qualification mark for the Asian meet. In the process, she also broke the 23-year-old meet record of her mentor Anju Bobby George , which was 6.59m set in Chennai in 2002. The national record still stands in Anju’s name – 6.83m set at the 2004 Athens Olympics where she finished fifth.

Reliance athletes Ancy Sojan (6.46m) and Moumita Mondal (6.45m) came second and third respectively. All three achieved the Asian meet qualification marks.

Meanwhile, in men’s shot put, Samardeep Singh of Madhya Pradesh upset favourite and two-time Asian champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor to win gold. Samardeep Singh also qualified for the Asian Championships with a best throw of 19.34m. Tajinderpal could only find a distance of 18.77m. Aniket (17.89m) of Uttarakhand came third.