Inter-State Athletics: Kerala's triple jump duo breaches Asiad qualifying mark

Kerala duo Abdulla Aboobacker and Eldhose Paul breached the Asian Games qualification mark in the men's triple jump as they finished on the podium at the national inter-state athletics championship in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

Paul, the CWG gold medallist, finished third with 16.75m while Aboobacker took silver on 16.88 behind national record holder Praveen Chithravel of Tamil Nadu, who jumped 17.07m. The Asiad qualification mark for the event was 16.60m.

Meanwhile, Kerala women claimed gold in the 4X100m relay. The team comprising Sandra AS, Arathy A, Anjali PD and Shibli AP clocked 46.35 seconds to finish ahead of Andhra Pradesh (46.61) and Odisha (46.68).

Swapna Barman of Madhya Pradesh won the gold in the women's heptathlon and also went past the Asian Games qualifying mark of 5654 aggregate points by gathering 5918 points in the combined seven events over the two days.

Gold winner in 100m, Jyothi Yarraji of Andhra Pradesh added the 100m hurdles title to her kitty with a timing of 12.92 seconds as 12 athletes achieved the Asian Games qualifying mark. The Asian Games qualifying time for women's 100m hurdles is 13.63 seconds.

The day also witnessed an unfortunate incident as triple jumper Akhilesh of Karnataka suffered a nasty injury on his right leg -- his front shin bone badly broken -- during take off after the first jump and was taken to a local hospital in an ambulance.
(With PTI inputs)