The youngster from Bhopal improves his national record to 5.35m, but misses Asian qualification mark of 5.51m.
The Day-Two of the 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championships was time to rejoice for some as they were successful in achieving Asian Athletics Championships mark in their respective events.
Among those who were successful on Tuesday at Maharaja’s College Stadium was talented pole vaulter, Dev Meena, from Madhya Pradesh.
Meena improved his national record by scaling a height of 5.35m, but fell short of the Asian qualification mark of 5.51m. Meena’s previous national record of 5.30m was set at 38th Uttarakhand National Games in Dehradun.
Meena said he was a bit disappointed in missing the Asian qualification mark, but expressed his satisfaction with his Tuesday’s performance. “I wanted to raise the bar but there was light drizzle and I didn’t continue on the advice of my coach,” Meena said.
There was intense competition in the women’s 400m.
While Rupal Chaudhary, one of the favourites to win the title, conserved every ounce of energy for the home stretch.
Tamil Nadu’s Asian Games medallist, Vithya Ramraj, who had a good lead in the first 300m couldn’t find another gear to sustain her lead in the last 100m. She was edged out by Rupal on the tape. Rupal’s winning time
Quick decision was key to Rupal success today. “I just wanted to catch up and shifted to another gear as the first 200m was slow,” Rupal said after winning the gold medal. “I’m happy to have won the race.”
Vithya said she paid for the brutal pace in the first 300m. “I never had energy to move forward and had to settle for second place,” Vithya said.
Top six runners in the women’s 400m dipped below the Asian qualification time of 53.80 seconds.
Asian Games medallist and India’s fastest female hurdler, Jyothi Yarraji, too expressed her satisfaction in winning 100m hurdles gold with a time of 13.23 seconds to better the Asian qualification time of 13.26 seconds.
Jyothi said she had pulled my right hamstring three weeks back and couldn’t dip below 13 seconds. “Kochi was my only chance for me to make the cut for the Asian meet. Hence, I had no choice but to compete,” Jyothi added.
