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RANCHI: Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh lit up the opening day of the National Senior Athletics Federation Competition at Birsa Munda Stadium, Morabadi, here on Friday as they reduced the men’s 100m national record by 0.03 seconds within a matter of minutes.Competing in the opening semis, Gurindervir first ran 10.17s to better Animesh’s national record of 10.18s. But within minutes, Animesh, running in the second semis, crossed the finish line in 10.15s to reclaim the national record while breaching the qualifying mark for the Commonwealth Games.
Interestingly, Gurindervir held himself back in the last part of the race and even later said, “I ran the first 80m.”As for coach James Hillier, he believes Gurindervir can go even faster in the final on Saturday, but is more than excited to see two of his pupils getting the best out of each other in such fashion.“It’s kind of what I was talking about a couple of years ago. They’ve started to break each other’s records, and 10.1s is now within reach. It’s very exciting. Everything is beginning to come together for these guys, and they’re starting to believe that 10.1s is no longer impossible,” said Hillier.While there were no other national records on the opening day, Seema Kaliramna grabbed CWG qualification in the women’s discus throw with a gold-winning effort of 57.29m.
Ancy Sojan won gold in the women’s long jump with a best effort of 6.75m, a meet record, but fell short of the CWG qualifying mark of 6.84m. Shaili Singh (6.58m) came second, while Bhavani Yadav Bhagav (6.39m) finished third.Tejaswin Shankar, meanwhile, was on a whole different level in the decathlon. He began the day by winning the 100m dash in 10.766s (PB), followed it up with a personal best leap of 7.67m in the long jump in his second attempt, and then registered his best throw of 13.31m in shot put, also in the second attempt in the morning session.In the evening, too, he was in brilliant form, clearing 2.25m with ease in the high jump. Then in the 400m, he registered a personal best time of 48.29s to finish the day with 4511 points.Earlier in the day, Bihar’s Vibhaskar Kumar produced the biggest shock of the morning session when he won his 100m heat in 10.36s, the fastest qualifying time across the five heats. Coming into the event, the 22-year-old had a best of 10.57s but this performance not only took everyone by surprise but also helped him qualify for the U23 Asian Athletics Championships.
In the semis, too, he impressed with a time of 10.38s to finish second and make it to the final.The men's 400m event also saw strong performances, with five athletes — Vishal TK, Rajesh Ramesh, Jay Kumar, Manu TS and Dharamveer Chaudhary — going sub-46 seconds across the three semifinal heats.As for the other events, Ashish Jakhar won the men’s hammer throw with a throw of 68.52m. In the last two events of the day, the men’s and women’s 3000m steeplechase were won by Haryana’s Balkishan (8:56.01) and Uttarakhand’s Ankita (9:48.16) respectively. Results (Day 1): Men: 10,000m: Deepak Bhatt (Uttarakhand) 29:42.93, Shailesh Kushwaha (Karnataka) 29:57. 56, Prashant Choudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 30:36.97; 3,000m steeplechase: Balkishan (Haryana) 8:56.01, Sharuk Khan (Uttar Pradesh) 8:56.63, Sunil Joliya (Gujarat) 8:58.38; Hammer throw: Ashish Jakhar (SSCB) 68.52m, Damneet Singh (Reliance) 67.62m, Ajay Kumar (Haryana) 64.93m.Women: 10,000m: Ravina Gayakwad (Maharashtra) 35:30.98 secs, Soniya (Uttarakhand) 36:16.22, Aarti Pawara (Maharashtra) 36:24.79 secs; 3,000m steeplechase: Ankita (Uttarakhand) 9:48.16, Prachi Devkar (IOCL) 10:16.29, Anju (Haryana) 10:28.23; Long jump: Ancy Sojan (Navy) 6.75m (MR), Shaili Singh (Anju Bobby George Academy) 6.58m, Bhavani Yadav (NCOE Bengaluru) 6.39m; Discus throw: Seema (JSW) 57.29m, Nidhi Rani (Haryana) 55.05m, Krishna Jayashankar (Reliance) 55m.
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