Running his first race this season, Jabir clocked 49.94 seconds to finish first in men's 400m hurdles.

Running his first race this season, Jabir clocked 49.94 seconds to finish first in men's 400m hurdles.

Running his first race this season, Jabir clocked 49.94 seconds to finish first in men's 400m hurdles.

Chennai: The spotlight fell on Kerala's international hurdler Jabir M P in the absence of several top stars as he topped the men's 400m hurdles race on 49.94 seconds at the second leg of the one-day Indian Grand Prix series here on Thursday.

The 27-year-old surged ahead of the other competitors at the last bend of the 400m hurdles group A race to post a sub-50 seconds time, pushing home favourite Santhosh Kumar T (50.14) to second spot at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here. He was competing in his first race of the season.
Santhosh Kumar later clocked a brilliant time in the 400m flat -- 46.46 seconds -- to win group A race.

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The women's 400m hurdles was dominated by Asian Games medallist R Vithya Ramraj who clocked 57.28 seconds. Vithya also scored a double by posting a time of 53.00 seconds to win the women's 400m A race.

Most of the country's top athletes gave the meet a miss as they are currently competing abroad in view of the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.