Praveen Chithravel, Avinash Sable, Parul Chaudhary shatter national records

New Delhi: Triple jumper Praveen Chithravel shattered the national record and breached the 2023 World Athletics Championships qualifying standard in Cuba while Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary set men's and women's 5,000m national marks in a track event in USA.

Chithravel jumped 17.37m to finish on top of podium at the V Prueba de Confrontacion 2023 competition on Saturday in Havana, Cuba, a World Athletics category F event. He bettered the earlier national record of 17.30m set by Renjith Maheswary in 2016.

The 21-year-old Chithravel also breached the 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships qualifying mark of 17.20m. His earlier personal best was 17.18m which he had achieved while winning gold at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai last year.

His 17.37m effort also put him in the second place in the season's top list for non-wind assisted jumps. Chithravel is currently training in Cuba under Cuban coach Yoandri Betanzos.

World junior championships medallist T Selva Prabhu, who is also training along with Chithravel, broke the U-20 national record with an effort of 16.58m for a fourth-place finish in the same event.

Sable and Chaudhary, both 28, bettered the old men's and women's 5000m national records at the Sound Running Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour silver level event, in Los Angeles, US, on Saturday.

Sable bettered his own national record of 13:25:65 by clocking 13:19.30 as he finished 12th in the race, while Chaudhary broke the earlier national mark of 15:15.89, which had remained for 13 years in the name of Preeja Sreedharan, by clocking 15:10:35 for a ninth-place finish.

Sable also holds the national record in 3,000m steeplechase, his pet event. He had won a silver in 3000m steeplechase at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He has also already qualified for the 2023 World Athletics Championships men's 3000 steeplechase event.

Both Sable and Chaudhary are currently training in the US.