Shot putter Toor, javelin thrower Rani shine in Fed Cup Senior Athletics C'ships

Ranchi: Reigning Asian Games champion shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist javelin thrower Annu Rani shared the limelight as they clinched gold medals in their respective events on the second day of the Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships here on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old Annu produced a below-par performance as she hurled the spear to a distance of 59.24m but it was still enough for her to better the qualifying standard for the upcoming Asian Championship as well as the Asian Games set by the Athletics Federation of India.

Annu, representing Uttar Pradesh in the championships, has a personal best of 63.82m, also the national record, which she had achieved last year.

The women's javelin throw qualifying standard for the July 12-16 Asian Championship is 54.73m, while the corresponding mark for the September 23-October 8 Hangzhou Asian Games is 56.46m.

The 28-year-old Toor, also an Asian record holder, heaved the iron ball to a distance of 20.42m to win the gold, though it was below his personal best of 21.49m.

Toor, representing Punjab, bettered the Asian Championships as well as the Asian Games qualifying mark of 19m. Both second and third-place finishers Delhi's Sahib Singh (19.23m) and Punjab's Karanveer Singh (19.05m) also breached the qualifying mark.

Srabani Nanda of Odisha emerged the fastest female athlete as she won the 100m dash with a time of 11.57 seconds at the Birsa Munda Stadium. Her winning time, however, fell short of the Asian Championship qualification standard of 11.44 seconds.

Amiya Kumar Mallick, also from Odisha, became the fastest male athlete of the championships by winning the 100m event with a time of 10.31 seconds. His winning time also fell short of the 10.19 seconds qualifying standard of both the Asian Championships and Asian Games.

The women's 400m title went to Maharashtra's Aishwarya Mishra, who clocked 52.57 seconds and bettered the Asian Championships standard.

Ramesh of Tamil Nadu won the corresponding men's quarter-mile race in 45.75 seconds, while Muhammed Ajmal (45.85) was second. Both breached the Asian Championships qualification standard of 46.17 seconds.

Earlier, 15 athletes made the cut for the final of men's 5000m race. The athletes were selected from two heats conducted Tuesday morning.

In both the heats the top three runners crossed the finish line below 14 minutes 10 seconds, hinting that the final will be an exciting race. The Asian qualifying time in 5000m is 14 minutes.

Uttar Pradesh's Gulveer Singh, winner of the men's 10,000m gold, will aim for a double in the meet as he has also qualified for the 5000m final.

The men's 110m hurdles heats saw Maharashtra's Tejas Ashok Shirse better the previous meet record of 13.65 seconds by clocking 13.61 seconds in his heat.

Of the 13 competitors contesting for a place in the final, Shirse was the only athlete to have dipped below 14 seconds. The Asian championships qualification mark set by AFI is 13.57 seconds.

In the women's 100m hurdles heats, three athletes achieved the Asian Championships qualification mark. National record holder Jyothi Yarraji of Andhra Pradesh also improved her meet record, by clocking 13.18 seconds.

R Nithya Ramaraj of Tamil Nadu (13.62 secs) and Pragyan Prasant Sahu (13.61 secs) were the other two athletes to have qualified for the continental meet in July.

Meanwhile, late Monday evening, Md Nur Hasan and Priti Lamba won gold medals in the men's and women's 3000m steeplechase events. The duo also achieved the Asian Championships qualification standards in their respective events.