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.

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.

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