Renjith Maheswary of Kerala may have won the men’s triple jump gold with an effort of 16.56 m but he was disappointed at not meeting the Olympic qualifying mark of 16.85 m on the second day of the 56th National inter-state athletics meet on Wednesday as he was well below par.
The other athlete who could have been the biggest star of the evening but missed the qualifying mark by a whisker — 0.43 sec — was the 25-year-old Jinson Johnson of Kerala who set a new Meet record with his effort of 1.46.43 in the 800 m but missed the Olympics qualifying mark (1.46.00).
Like Renjith, Johnson too found fault with the weather which he felt was not ideal for him. In fact, heavy rains lased the City through the day but to the delight of the organisers they stopped just before the finals this evening.
In one of the major surprises of the evening, Purnima Hembra of Odisha clinched the gold in the 400 m women’s hurdles with a timing of 59.27 seconds. And, like Renjith, Purnima too will try to book her berth for Rio in the Thailand meet soon.
The results:
Men: 800m: 1. Jinson Johnson (Ker) 1:46.43, 2. Manjith Singh (Pun) 1:48.61, 3. K.A. Bharath (Kar) 1:50.10. Triple jump: 1. Renjith Maheswary (Ker) 16.56m, 2. A.V. Rakesh Babu (Ker) 16.20m, 3. Bheeshm Singh (Man) 16.16m. Shotput: 1. Inderjeet Singh (Har) 19.28m, 2. Tajinderpal Singh (Pun) 19.21 m, 3. Jasdeep Singh (Pun) 18.48 m. Steeplechase: 1. Naveen (Har) 8:44.33, 2. B. Ramesh Kumar (Mah) 8:56.17, 3. Karamvir (Har) 9:00.79. Decathlon: 1. Ankit Saini (Har) 6807 pts, 2. Daya Ram (Raj) 6669 pts, 3. Narender (Har) 6637 pts. Tuesday result: Pole vault: 1. S. Siva (TN) 4.90m, 2. Praveen Kumar (Pun) 4.80m, 3. K.N. Bimin (Ker) 4.70m.
Women: 20 km: 1. B. Soumya (Del) 1:42:55.24, 2. Priyanka (UP) 1:45:43.60, 3. Rani Yadav (UP) 1:49:19.75. 400 m hurdles: 1. Purnima Hembra (Odi) 59.27, 2. Ayana Thomas (Del) 59.63, 3. Aarthi (TN) 1:00.60. 800m: 1. Gomathi (TN) 2:06.28, 2. Sini A. Markose (Ker) 2:07.61, 3. Archana Yadav (Mah) 2:08.44. Steeplechase: 1. Parul Chaudry (UP) 10:46.92, 2. Nandini Gupta (UP) 11:08.92, 3. Angel James (Ker) 11:13.21.
