Amit, Payal improve meet records on way to gold medals in 35km race walk

PTI, Sep 1, 2024, 8:06 PM IST

Bengaluru: Haryana’s Amit and Railways’ Payal bettered meet records in the men’s and women’s 35km race walk events while winning gold medals on the penultimate day of the 63rd National Open Athletics Championships at Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday.

Amit clocked 2 hours 38 minutes exactly to better the previous meet record of 2:39:05 set by Ram Babu in 2022.

Payal clocked 3:02:24 to improve her own meet mark of 3:04.48 set in 2022.

Away from the road race, there was excitement at the throwing arena. Madhya Pradesh’s promising shot putter Samardeep Singh Gill’s hopes of breaching the 20m barrier fell short though he won the gold with an effort of 19.27m.

The hammer throw gold went to Ravi of Railways, with 66.41m.

In the women’s 800m preliminary round, both KM Chanda of Railways and Twinkle of Punjab, two prominent runners, were through to the final. KM Deeksha of Madhya Pradesh, fancied to win the title, skipped the heats.

On Monday, the focus will be on the women’s 400m hurdles final. Asian Games medallist R Vithya Ramraj had a good run in 2023 season and equalled PT Usha’s long-standing national record of 55.42 seconds in the 400m hurdles.

On Sunday, she was a comfortable winner in the heats. The meet record of 56.80 seconds in 400m hurdles was recorded by Usha in 1994.

Results: Men: High jump: Jomon Joy (Kerala) 2.14m, Aadarsh Ram (Railways) 2.11m, Rohit (Haryana) 2.11m.

Long jump: Arya S (Railways) 7.89m, Muhammed Yahiya (Kerala) 7.78m, Jagroop (Punjab) 7.65m.

Shot put: Samardeep Singh Gill (Madhya Pradesh) 19.27m, Abhilash Saxena (Madhya Pradesh) 18.53m, Dhanveer Singh (SSCB) 18.51m.

Hammer throw: Ravi (Railways) 66.41m, Ashish Jakhar (Services) 64.87m, Nitesh Poonia (Railways) 64.85m.

35km race walk: Amit (Haryana) 2:38:00.00 (meet record), Vijay Vishwakarma (Services) 2:39:13.00, Eknath Turambekar (Railways) 2:39:36.00.

4x100m relay: Odisha 39.65 seconds, Railways 39.82 seconds, Services 39.99 seconds.

Women: 35km race walk: Payal (Railways) 3:02:24 (meet record), Ramandeep Kaur (Railways) 3:08:22, Bandana Patel (Uttar Pradesh) 3:09:31.

4x100m relay: Karnataka 45.21 seconds, Railways 45.29 seconds, Odisha 45.93 seconds.