Federation Cup athletics: Gulveer Singh books Asian Championships berth

Ranchi: Uttar Pradesh's Gulveer Singh booked his ticket to the upcoming Asian Athletics Championships by winning the men's 10,000m gold on the opening day of the Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships here.

The Asian Athletics Championships is scheduled to be held from July 12 to 16 in Bangkok.

Gulveer won with a time of 29:05.90 seconds, which was better than the Asian Championships qualifying time of 29:30.

The top 11 athletes in the 25-lap race were below the Asian qualification time.

Gujarat's international runner Murli Kumar Gavit, who finished 11th in the field of 35 athletes, clocked 29:27.76.

Of the 45 athletes who started the race, 10 did not finish.

The women's 10,000m race was won by Maharashtra's Sanjivani Jadhav, with a time of 33:32.73, nearly 30 seconds slower than the Asian qualifying time of 33 minutes. Of the five athletes that took the field four finished the race.

Away from the track, Uttar Pradesh's Tanya Chaudhary won the gold medal in the women's hammer throw with a distance of 60.54m. But she missed the Asian qualification standard of 62.03m.

Tanya had a series of 57.39m, 51.76m, 55.73m, no mark, 60.54m and no mark. International thrower Sarita R Singh, also from UP, finished a close second with a throw of 60.45m. Punjab's Manpreet Kaur was third at 57.08m.

There was excitement in the men's 1500m heats as Haryana's Aman topped his heat with a time of 3:46.04 seconds, which was better than the Asian qualifying standard of 3:47.84.

Aman was among 12 athletes who made the cut for the final. Johnson finished second behind Aman in the heats with a time of 3:49.21.

It was heartbreak for Delhi's international quarter-miler Amoj Jacob as he strained his hamstring and pulled out of the fifth and last heat.

Rajesh Ramesh of Tamil Nadu breached the continental qualification mark of 46.17 seconds in the 400m semifinals. He clocked 46.13 seconds.

In the women's 400m heats, two athletes were successful in booking tickets to the Asian Championship. Aishwarya Mishra of Maharashtra covered 400m in 52.85 seconds to better the qualifying time of 53.54 seconds, while in another heat R Vithya Ramraj of Tamil Nadu crossed the finish line in 53.32 seconds.

Kerala's Maymon Poulose emerged the fastest runner in the morning 100m heats with a time of 10.54 seconds. He further improved his time to 10.46 seconds in the semifinals to enter the final.

National record holder Amiya Kumar Mallick of Odisha clocked 10.41 seconds in the semifinals to stay on course.