Manikanta emerges fastest

Bengaluru: HH Manikanta raced to the gold medal in the men's 100m final at the 62nd National Open Athletics Championships here on Thursday but couldn't improve on the 10.23s he clocked in Wednesday's semifinals to better the national record.Running in Lane 3, the Services athlete from Udupi was off to a moderate start but soon zoomed ahead of his rivals. He was in control after around 30 metres and steadily increased his lead till the finish line as he won by a big margin in 10.42s. The Inter-Services champion finished way ahead of teammate Nikhil Patil who came second in 10.69s. Railways inter-state meet champion Siva Kumar B was third in 10.7."I was hoping to better yesterday's time but I'm happy with my performance," a beaming Manikanta told TOI after receiving the gold medal on debut."My next target is the National Games," added the 21-year-old who is aiming to improve his time to meet the Paris Olympics qualification mark of 10 seconds.Tamil Nadu state champion Giridharani Ravikumar emerged fastest among women, clocking 11.36s for the 100m gold. Karnataka's Sneha SS (11.42s) was second and Punjab's Kamaljeet Kaur (11.52s) third.Tejas sets new meet markHigh hurdler Tejas Ashok Shirse of Railways bagged his third National title of the year after his gold-medal efforts at the Federation Cup and Inter-State meet. Tejas, who ran his season's best time of 13.61s in May, won in a new meet record time of 13.67, erasing the 13.77s set by Siddhanth Thingalaya in 2011.Federation Cup silver medallist Madhvendra Singh of Rajasthan again settled for the second spot in 13.89s. Manav Rajanarayanan of Tamil Nadu was third in 14.11s. Anjali C of Karnataka claimed the bronze in women's 100m hurdles to add to Sneha’s silver. She ran her personal best time of 13.53s to climb the podium behind Pragyan Prasant Sahu (13.46s) of Odisha and Sapna Kumari (13.47) of Bihar.Results: Men: 100m: 1. Manikanta HH (SSCB, 10.42s); 2. Nikhil Patil (SSCB, 10.69); 3. Siva B (Rlys, 10.7). 110mH: 1. Tejas Shirse (Rlys, 13.67 MR. Old: Siddhanth Thingalaya 13.77, 2011); 2. Madhvendra Shekhawat (Raj, 13.89); 3. Manav R (TN, 14.11). Discus throw: 1. Nirbhay Singh (Har, 55.21m); 2. Gagandeep Singh (SSCB, 55.14); 3. Prabhjot Singh (Pol, 54.88). Decathlon: 1. Yaman Deep Sharma (Rlys, 7078 points); 2. Rohit Roman (SSCB, 6965); 3. Jagtar Singh (Raj, 6888).Women: 100m: 1. Giridharani Ravikumar (TN, 11.36s); 2. Sneha SS (Kar, 11.42); 3. Kamaljeet Kaur (Pun, 11.52). 100mH: 1. Pragyan Prasant Sahu (Odi, 13.46); 2. Sapna Kumari (Bih, 13.47); 3. Anjali C (Kar, 13.53). Long jump: 1. Bhavani Yadav Bhagvati (AP, 6.22m); 2. Priya Rathore (Raj, 6.12); 3. Kusuma Ravada (AP, 6.08). Shot put: 1. Abha Khatua (Mah, 16.32); 2. Manpreet Kaur (Pol, 15.96); 3. Srishti Vij (Del, 15.78).