Karnataka long jumper Aishwarya records second best jump ever by an Indian woman

Chennai: Karnataka's B Aishwarya produced the second best-ever long jump effort by any Indian woman as she cleared a stunning 6.73m in the qualification round on the third day of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships here on Sunday.

The 24-year-old improved 21cm over her earlier personal best of 6.52m which she had cleared while winning the gold in the National Open Championships in September last year.

Her effort is second only to legendary World Championships bronze winner Anju Bobby George's national record of 6.83m.

Aishwarya bettered the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard of 6.50m set by Athletics Federation of India (AFI). She also bettered the meet record of 6.63m set by Mayookha Johny in 2011. However, there was no wind speed reading during the qualification round.

Aishwarya's triumph meant, Kerala duo of Ancy Sojan (6.28m) and Nayana James (6.26m) had to settle for silver and bronze respectively.

In another shock result, national record holder Jyothi Yarraji fell to finish the race in the women's 100m hurdles final as she clipped the last hurdle and fell on the track. C Kanimozhi of Tamil Nadu won the race in 13.62 seconds well outside AFI's CWG qualifying standard of 13.11s.

Jyothi had clocked 13.04s last month in a race in the Netherlands, which was the second time she bettered her own national record.

The men's 110m hurdles was won by national record holder Siddhant Thingalaya with a time of 13.93s.

Asian record holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor of Punjab expectedly took the gold in men's shot put with an effort of 20.34m in his final round throw which was 16cm short of the CWG qualifying distance of 20.50m set by the AFI.

National record holder Annu Rani of Uttar Pradesh easily won the women's javelin throw event by clearing 60.97m, which was above the CWG standard of 59.50m.

The high jump gold went to Sarvesh Anil Kushare of Maharashtra as he cleared 2.24m, three centimeter short of the CWG qualifying mark.

Parul Chaudhary beat veteran Sudha Singh, her Uttar Pradesh team-mate, for gold with a time of 9:42.16 in women's 3000m steeplechase while Balkishan of Haryana won the men's event with a time of 8:42.34.