National Federation Cup Athletics Competition makes low-key start

NEW DELHI: Vithya Ramraj, the defending champion and a joint national record holder in the 400m hurdles, withdrew from her event due to back pain as the National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Competition commenced with a subdued start on Sunday.
Having recently been part of the Indian women's 4x400m relay squad that secured a Paris Olympics berth in the Bahamas, Vithya opted out of the women's 400m hurdles final race at the Kalinga Stadium soon after the start of the event.
In her absence, Veerpal Kaur from Punjab clinched the gold medal, albeit with a relatively slow time of 59.43 seconds. Following closely behind, Salini Valupararambil of Kerala secured second place with a time of 1:00.73, while Ramandeep Kaur, also from Punjab, secured the third spot with a time of 1:01.29.
The 25-year-old Vithya had run the first leg of the first round Olympic qualifying heat race but was replaced in the second round by Rupal Chaudhary in Nassau in the World Relays.
She had equalled the legendary PT Usha's 400m hurdles national record of 55.42 seconds during the Asian Games in Hangzhou in October last year.
"I am having back pain. There is still jet lag also as we returned from Bahamas just a few days ago," Vithya told PTI.
Jyothika Sri Dandi, another member of the relay squad, said, "It was an intense training and competition (for one month in Bahamas) with Olympic qualification being the target, it was very intense. So, we are kind of taking time to get into another competition."
Vithya of Tamil Nadu had won the 400m hurdles gold in the last edition of this competition with a time of 57.51 seconds.
The men's 400m hurdles was won by Santosh Kumar of Tamil Nadu with a time of 50.04 seconds. Nikhil Bhardwaj (50.92) of Punjab and Dhaval Mahesh Utekar (51.13) of Gujarat were second and third respectively.
The four-day event has become a high-profile one after Olympic and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra decided to participate in it. He is competing in a domestic event for the first time in three years. He had taken part in the 2021 edition of the same event.
The qualifying round of the men's javelin event will be held on Tuesday while the final will be on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a dope testing team of National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has arrived here to take samples from the athletes.
"It's an Olympic qualifying event, so I think the NADA is here well on time from the first day itself," an official said.
(With inputs from PTI)