Indian Athletics Final Series Sees Record Breaking Performances Before Asian Games
With India’s leading track and field athletes making their final competitive appearance before the Asian Games, hammer thrower Tanya Chaudhary emerged as one of the biggest highlights of the Indian Athletics Final Series on Thursday.
Tanya secured the women’s hammer throw gold medal with an impressive 68.35m effort, setting a new National record in the process. Eighteen year old Anushka Yadav finished second with a throw of 66.34m. Anushka had created a National record just two months earlier with a distance of 67.02m, becoming the youngest athlete to hold the record at the time.
The significance of Tanya’s achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the limited crowd because the hammer throw competition was conducted in the warm up field outside the main stadium.
Tanya said she entered the competition with confidence after producing a throw beyond 67m at the inter university games, although that performance had not been officially ratified. She explained that she had been pursuing the National record for around three years and was pleased to finally achieve it.
According to Tanya, her recent training has focused more on improving the technical elements of the throw rather than simply increasing power. She now hopes to improve further and maintain a level above 68m at the Asian Games. Reaching the 70m barrier remains one of her major targets for the year.
The men’s hammer throw also produced a National record. Delhi’s Nirbhay Choudhary recorded 71.02m to surpass the previous mark held by Neeraj Kumar for nearly a decade.
In the men’s 100m, Animesh Kujur claimed victory with a time of 10.21 seconds. Gurindervir Singh finished second in 10.32 seconds, while Rushiprasad Singh took third place after clocking 10.33 seconds.
Harita Bhadra won the women’s 100m in 11.22 seconds. She is set to represent India in the 200m at the Asian Games and said that Thursday’s race was her final 100m competition of the season. Her focus is now firmly on winning a medal at the Asian Games.
Animesh later completed a sprint double by winning the 200m in 20.59 seconds. In the men’s 400m, Vishal T.K. produced the expected winning performance, finishing in 45.36 seconds. Jay Kumar and Manu T.S. followed him in the event. Six of the eight finalists finished the race in under 46 seconds.
Avinash Sable also returned to the steeplechase after an absence of nearly one and a half years. His comeback was convincing as he won the race by more than 18 seconds over Shubham Bhandare, who finished second.
The winners of the events received prize money of ₹1 lakh each.
Men’s Winners
100m: Animesh Kujur, 10.21s
200m: Animesh Kujur, 20.59s
400m: Vishal T.K., 45.36s
800m: Mohd. Afsal, 1:46.40
1,500m: Rahul Baloda, 3:39.89
110mH: Krishik Manjunath, 13.65s
400mH: T. Santhosh Kumar, 50.08s
3,000m steeplechase: Avinash Sable, 8:32.39
Long jump: Mohd. Sazid Atta, 8.01m
Triple jump: Karthik Unnikrishnan, 16.43m
High jump: Aadarsh Ram, 2.18m
Javelin: Rohit Yadav, 81.10m
Hammer: Nirbhay Choudhary, 71.02m
Shot put: Tajinderpal Singh Toor, 20.64m
Pole vault: Dev Meena, 5.40m
Women’s Winners
100m: Harita Bhadra, 11.22s
400m: Aishwarya Mishra, 52.51s
800m: Lili Das, 2:03.41
1,500m: Thota Sankeerthana, 4:37.95
100mH: Nandhini Kongan, 13.30s
400mH: Anu Raghavan, 57.23s
3,000m steeplechase: Parul Chaudhary, 9:22.49
Long jump: Ancy Sojan, 6.76m
Triple jump: Asha Ilango, 13.76m
High jump: Pooja Singh, 1.81m
Javelin: Annu Rani, 57.50m
Hammer: Tanya Chaudhary, 68.35m
Discus: Seema Kaliramana, 56.52m
Shot put: Manpreet Kaur, 17.19m
Pole vault: Nitika Akare, 4.10m