Annu Rani of Meerut set a national record in women’s javelin as she threw 58.83 metres twice in the 54th National inter-State athletics championship in Lucknow on Saturday.
The 21-year-old Annu who had started her athletic career with the discus, bettered the national record of 58.64 set by Gurmeet Kaur in 2000.
For someone who had a previous best of 54.35 metres in the last Open National championship in Ranchi, Annu impressed with a series of 57.39, 55.31, 58.83, 57.42, 57.88 and 58.83, much to the joy of the locals.
Coached by Kashi Nath at the national camp in Patiala, Annu easily beat the meet record of 54.21 set by Gurmeet Kaur in 1999.
In the process, she also went past the selection criteria of 58.46 metres set for the Commonwealth Games by the Athletics Federation of India.
Interestingly, the selection norms were changed overnight in 16 events after they had been announced in the managers meeting on the eve of the championship.
The norm was brought down from 60.03 in women’s javelin.
Though the joy of host Uttar Pradesh doubled with the 24-year-old Dharamraj Yadav winning the men’s discus with a personal best of 56.73 metres, there was disappointment as the ‘best woman athlete’ of the last championship, the Asian Games gold medallist, Sudha Singh failed to finish the 3000 metres steeplechase.
Mayookha shines Mayookha Johny who had already booked her ticket for Glasgow in long jump, asserted her good form by clinching the triple jump gold with a new meet mark of 13.72 metres.
Mayookha had a series of 13.38, 13.72, 13.64, 13.51, 13.53 and 13.67 as she sailed past her own meet mark of 13.68 set in 2010.
National record holder V.S. Surekha was in a flood of tears after her failed attempts to erase the meet mark of 4.00 metres set by Khyati Vakharia last year, though she was nowhere near the qualification standard of 4.20 metres in women’s pole vault.
The results: Men: 3000m steeplechase: 1. Naveen 8:42.29 (NMR, old 8:42.58); 2. Jai Veer 8:47.26; 3. Sachin Patil 9:01.12.
High jump: 1. Nikhil Chittarasu 2.20; 2. Jithin Thomas 2.18; 3. S. Harshith 2.14.
Discus: 1. Dharamraj Yadav 56.73; 2. Vikas Poonia 55.18; 3. Baljinder Singh 55.11.
20km walk: 1. Chandan Sinh 1:31:33; 2. Baljinder Singh 1:31:48; 3. Kuldeep 1:31:56.
4x100m relay: 1. Telengana 41.53; 2. Kerala 41.75; 3. Tamil Nadu 41.79.
Women: 3000m steeplechase: 1. Lalita Babbar 10:10.38; 2. Nandini Gupta 11:14.33; 3. Chinta yadav 11:15.40.
Triple jump: 1. Mayookha Johny 13.72 (NMR, old 13.68); 2. Joyline M. Lobo 13.05; 3. V. Neena 13.04.
Pole vault: 1. V. S. Surekha 3.90; 2. Kiranbir Kaur 3.60; 3. R. Remya 3.50.
Javelin: 1. Annu Rani 58.83 (NR, old 58.64); 2. Suman Devi 56.92; 3. Saraswathy 47.49.
4x100m relay: 1. Orissa 46.27; 2. Kerala 46.50; 3. Tamil Nadu 47.71.
