Animesh Kujur takes 200m gold in record time

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 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Competition at Maharaja’s College Stadium here on Thursday.

Kujur’s time of 20.40 was better than the mark of 20.52 set by Borgohain three years ago. Borgohain, competing for Reliance, claimed silver with 20.80 sec, 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.

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Animesh 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 on Thursday 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. The bend is my favourite position and once I reached there, I got good pace and made it count,” said Kujur.

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

Later, Shaili Singh made a remarkable comeback from injury, leaping 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. Reliance athletes Ancy Sojan (6.46m) and Moumita Mondal (6.45m) came second and third, respectively.

All three achieved the Asian meet qualification marks. In men’s shot put, Samardeep Singh of Madhya Pradesh upset two-time Asian champion Tajinderpal Singh (18.77m) to win gold. Samardeep also qualified for the Asian Championships with a best throw of 19.34m

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