CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s
Mohammed Salahuddin
won gold in the
triple jump
event - with a personal best of 16.64M - at the
Qosanov Memorial
meet in
Almaty
, Kazakhstan on Sunday. The 25-year-old, who is from Coimbatore, is targeting the World championships to be held in Doha from September 28 to October 6.
"I am happy to have won gold in this competition. Till a couple of weeks ago, we were training for the inter-state athletics meet which will be held in Lucknow next month. That particular tournament serves as one of the qualifiers for the Worlds. However, once our participation for the Almaty event was finalised, we quickly shifted focus," Salahuddin told TOI. The silver in the event was won by India’s
Mohammad Zuber
(16.21M). The two-day event saw India clinch 10 medals - 5 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze.
Sunday’s performance was a result of the hard yards put in by Salahuddin in the last few months.
"When I took part at the
Federation Cup
in March this year, I had managed a distance of 16.36M. In a span of three months, I have not only rectified a few of my mistakes but also gone on to cover a distance of 16.64M - an increase of about 30 cms," Salahuddin said.
With the qualifying mark for World championships set at 16.90 M, Salahuddin is fully aware that he will have to better his current performance in order to make the cut.
"I know what my target is and all my energies are channelized on achieving that. Getting to 16.90M is something I am focusing on, and hopefully I should be able to get there in the coming weeks," said Salahuddin. He will get a chance to inch closer to his target when he takes part at the international meet in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on July 13 and 14.