Animesh Kujur wins 200m sprint while Annu Rani and Murali Sreeshankar clinch javelin and long jump titles. There was drama in store as far as Kujur is concerned. The 22-year-old pulled up after a few paces in his men’s 100m heat race in the morning
Animesh Kujur celebrates his win in the men’s 200m at Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Pics/PTI
Star sprinter Animesh Kujur, veteran javelin thrower Annu Rani and long jump ace Murali Sreeshankar lived up to expectations by winning their respective events at India’s maiden World Athletics Continental Tour competition here on Sunday.
The bronze level event went off smoothly but the quality of competitions did not rise to any great heights.
Annu Rani. Pic/AFP
Drama for Kujur
There was drama in store as far as Kujur is concerned. The 22-year-old pulled up after a few paces in his men’s 100m heat race in the morning. He then came out to run his 200m heat half-an-hour later and qualified for the final with a time of 20.99 seconds.
In the evening, he ran 20.77 seconds in the 200m final to win the title. Ko Seunghwan of Korea (20.95 seconds) and another Indian Ragul Kumar (21.17 seconds) were second and third respectively.
Murali Sreeshankar
Kujur, representing Odisha, holds national records in both 100m (10.18 seconds) and 200m (20.32 seconds).
Sreeshankar was up against rising teenager Shahnavaz Khan, who won gold in Uttarakhand National Games in February. The 17-year-old Khan was leading with his fourth round jump of 8.04m, while Sreeshankar was second with 7.95m.
Murali’s leap of faith
But the 26-year-old Sreeshankar produced 8.13m in his final attempt to take the gold in dramatic fashion for his fourth title in a row since coming back from a long injury lay-off.
He is, however, yet to breach the Tokyo World Championships direct entry mark of 8.27m. Khan became the latest entrant to the 8m club in the Indian men’s long jump. His earlier best was 7.90m.
In women’s javelin, Asian Games champion Annu Rani bagged the gold with a fourth round throw of 62.01m, thereby strengthening her chances of making it to the Tokyo World Championships in September. Rani, representing Uttar Pradesh, had another 60m-plus throw — a 61.01m in her fifth attempt — as she continued her good form.
Meanwhile, Shaili Singh won the women’s long jump event with a below-par effort of 6.28m. Abinaya Rajarajan, representing NCoE Trivandrum, won the women’s 100m final with a time of 11.57 seconds.
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